[expat_panama]

QE in the modern era ... the Federal Reserve buying hundreds of billions of treasury bonds.

The big buying sprees were '09, '11, and '13.  The S&P had already begun its bounce before all three and the big '12-'15 run happened after QE1 and QE2.  Fed buying stopped back in Sept. '14 and the S&P continued to climb for half a year.  There's more going on w/ stocks than just QE.

If they’ve quit, who’s buying all the bonds?

From '08 to '15 the total Federal debt doubled by selling $9T and of that the Fed bought "only" $2T.  There are plenty of other buyers.

[DuncanWaring]

Looks like unless the Federal Reserve starts buying more T-bills, the S&P 500 ain’t going anywhere.