Barron’s assembled several top strategists for a recent round table discussion of where the markets are headed as 2010 nears. Among those participating were Fusion IQ’s Barry Ritholtz, and mutual fund manager Ron Muhlenkamp, both of whom offered some interesting thoughts.

Ritholtz says he thinks we are in a “cyclical bull market rally within a secular bear market”. He makes historical comparisons between the current environment and other periods in history, and says he wouldn’t be surprised if the Dow Jones Industrial Average is right around current levels in four or five years. “But,” he says, “it’s going to be a roller coaster to get there.” Ritholtz says he’s high on some unloved areas right now, including coal firms and even some media companies.

Muhlenkamp says the American public is saving more these days, and a piece of those savings is going to flow back into Wall Street. He likes several firms with high free cash flow yields (that’s share price divided by free cash flow per share) and high dividends, including AT&T and Pfizer. He also owns a lot of Bank of America shares, he says.