What's an investor to do?

NEW YORK -- A look back at history shows that a good time to invest in the stock market is when a shrinking economy is on the path to recovery. In fact, in the post-World War II era, stocks have posted gains 90% of the time in the six- and 12-month periods after the end of a recession, according to Ned Davis Research. On average, stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index are up 14.4% a year after an economic downturn is declared dead.

Those are pretty comforting statistics. But that assumes that the recovery is real, robust and sustainable. The problem: There are plenty of economists, analysts and money managers on Wall Street who question whether the budding recovery has real legs. To complicate matters further, stocks have already rallied 54% since bottoming on March 9.

And therein lies the quandary for investors: How to invest now for an economic recovery that has more question marks than answers. To help guide investors through this uncertain time, USA TODAY's Adam Shell has sought the advice of a handful of some of Wall Street's top players.