One of Slope's more artistic readers sent me this imagined picture of me playing Laser Quest yesterday; nice!

As for the market, I can only hope that last week was something more than a very temporary "reprieve." In other words, any continued weakness next week would help some of these bearish positions really blossom. Otherwise, this was just a cruel fakeout.

Since some folks seem to misunderstand my mid-range view on the market, I'll say it again: I think the most probable direction is that we chop our way, slowly but surely, down to the low 800s, start to regain strength, and then climb back up to new highs for 2009. I don't think the speed of the next phase will be as explosive as late March, but I do think a climb to anywhere from 1050 to 1200 (an admittedly large range at this point) makes the most sense.

All of this, in my view, is constructive for the renewal of a market that has the potential to be incredibly profitable (in some cases, life-changing) for Slopers that are ready for it. When that happens depends on how long the constructive push higher takes. Will it be this year? Next? I'm not the patient sort, so this autumn would be nice, but it's starting to dawn on me that the market isn't exactly aligning its actions to whatever I happen to want at a given moment.