Why did BoA tell investors to "take profits"?

"Take profits." That's the phrase Bank of America used in a recent note to investors, and as Marketplace host Kai Rizdahl noted, it's market etiquette for something blunter: sell. The call comes at a moment when equity markets are hitting record highs with regularity, IPOs are flooding in, and trillion-dollar market caps are almost routine. But BofA, which advertises on Marketplace, pointed to what it called "too many red flags" suggesting a market peak. The report, which the bank declined to discuss on the show, cited worsening fundamentals in consumer spending and rising consumer indebtedness, a big run-up in oil prices, and extremely high valuations for tech companies relative to their revenue. Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University, said that kind of valuation gap can signal investors are being overly speculative or that the market is nearing its peak. But calling the top is notoriously difficult. Ben Carlson of Ritholtz Wealth Management noted that people have been trying to call the top on this rally for ten years, and the market has just kept going. Larry Adams of Raymond James, another Marketplace underwriter, advised against making major portfolio changes until there are fundamental shifts in the economy, corporate earnings, or Fed policy. James Weston of Rice University Business School pointed out the self-fulfilling risk of telling everyone