NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When you consider that a year ago stocks were bleeding red and that most portfolios are still nowhere close to recovering to where they were back in 2000, the ebullience among investors seems a little odd.

Particularly when you look at the way stocks have ramped up since December. Particularly when you look at what sorts of stocks have been ramping up the most.

"There are things out there that just make you scratch your head," said Brad Ruderman, head of the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based hedge fund Ruderman Capital Partners. "Stocks like NetFlix (NFLX: Research, Estimates). Why are people so excited about that?"

Shares of the online DVD rental service, which many observers were pronouncing ridiculously expensive back in the summer when they hit $25, finished Friday at $77.70. They have risen by more than 50 percent since the beginning of last month.

But Ruderman is not one to bet against NetFlix these days. He's not one to short much of anything, really -- the odds of getting your head handed to you are just too strong, he says. Everybody loves the market, it seems, and while no good fund manager feels particularly good to get lumped in with the consensus, when the consensus is as strong as it is now betting against it is dangerous.

Ruderman also believes that, with companies' cash levels high, we are on the cusp of a wave of mergers and acquisitions -- another reason not to bet against stocks. If you have sold short a stock and it is acquired by another company, you will have to buy back the shares at a far higher price than you bought them at and take a huge loss.

So Ruderman is staying along for the ride, although he is trying to be a bit more defensive and avoid the areas that everyone has been crowding into. Eventually the market will run into trouble again, he supposes, but we haven't seen the sort of excesses that usually precede sharp drops.

"I don't want to try to be a hero here and bet against the market," he said. "The thought of losing money while stocks are ramping [up] isn't something I want to swallow."

The event that gets top billing in the week ahead (click here to see what else is going on), the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, isn't generating the buzz that the past couple of Fed meeting did.

"It's almost a boilerplate meeting," said Morgan Stanley economist Bill Sullivan. "At the last meeting there was widespread expectation that they would remove their pledge to maintain accommodative policy for 'a considerable period.' But the December employment figures made it very apparent that the job market continues to lag, and most observers have come to the conclusion that the Fed really does need to stay accommodative."

As a result, the read on the meeting is, first (and obviously), that there's no chance that rates are going higher and, second, that there is going to be very little change in the statement that the Fed releases following the meeting.

This probably suits the Fed, which has been trying very hard lately to make as few waves as possible (to varying degrees of success), just fine.

There will be plenty earnings to chew on (click here to check out some big ones) and a raft of economic reports. The biggest deal may be fourth quarter gross domestic product, slated for Friday.

"It'll be a solid number, but it won't post the 8.2 percent growth we saw for the third quarter," said Lehman Brothers economist Joe Abate.

Abate's guess is 4 percent, although many estimates are somewhat higher. How the GDP report breaks out may be more important as the overall number.

Abate believes that housing, inventories, and capital spending on equipment will be big contributors to the report. Consumer spending growth will lag -- a trend that should continue through the year. Refinancing levels won't be what they were last year (although we may get a last blast from the recent decline in rates) and car companies can't keep pushing steel at the same pace. And then there's all that stuff we've all amassed.

Wall Street has paid little attention to the race among the Democrats to pick who will go up against George Bush, but that may change after the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, if -- as seems the case -- John Kerry wins and Howard Dean finishes back in the pack. The bigger the challenge to the president, the feeling on Wall Street goes, the worse off the market will be.

"There's no question that the stock market loves George Bush," said Ruderman. "And Kerry looks like a formidable foe. I actually would have expected it to be rougher for the market following Iowa. Either people like Kerry or they just don't care yet."

If Tuesday sinks it for Kerry, the caring might start.

• It's another week of earnings season. Here are the reports you want to watch.
• Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect December existing home sales, due out Monday, to come in at an annualized rate of 6.1 million, up from 6.06 million in November.
• The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for January, slated for Tuesday, is forecast to pick up to 95.1 from December's 91.3
• The New Hampshire Democratic primary is Tuesday.
• The Federal Open Market Committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday. No change in rates is expected.
• December durable goods orders, out Wednesday, are expected to lift by 2 percent, reversing November's 2.5 percent decline.
• December new home sales, also on the docket for Wednesday, are expected to come in at an annualized 1.1 million, up from 1.082 million in November.
• The fourth-quarter Employment Cost Index, due out Thursday, is expected to show a gain of 0.9 percent, down slightly from the third quarter's 1 percent.

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• Fourth-quarter gross domestic product, out Friday, is expected to show 4.7 percent growth annually, down from the third quarter's 8.2 percent.
• The University of Michigan's second take on its consumer sentiment index for January, out Friday, is expected to slip to 102.5 from the initial 103.2.
• The Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index, due out Friday, is expected to bump up to 61.7 from December's 59.2. Any number over 50 represents growth in the Chicago area.