Into this milieu, enter, with the fervor of a down-home, tub-thumping preacher, Peter Lynch, trying to restore the notion that the small investor remains a smart stock-picker who should keep looking at equities.

This may sound like odd advice, coming from Lynch. After all, he is manager of the nation's largest stock mutual fund, Fidelity Magellan.

"It makes me angry that the media keep pushing the notion that the situation for the small investor is hopeless," Lynch said on a recent Chicago stopover. "This is one time that the exact opposite is true. Things have never been better."