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The bulls were back at it again on Thursday, building on the rebound they started in the middle of Wednesday's session. It still wasn't enough of a buying effort to shake stocks out the rut they've been in since a week and a half ago, however, so you need don't need to pop the champagne corks just yet.

We'll take our usual look at the market in a second. First you and I need to finish up what we started yesterday when we explained how the market's movement at any given time is part of three separate trends, each of which has its own timeframe. Let's go.

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Looks like some of you have already started to establish your stock-picking prowess by using our new stock-rating tools. Remember, not only does this feature let us collectively decide how the SmallCap Network community feels about a particular stock, but it also lets you keep tabs on your bullish and bearish calls. Who knows? You may end up becoming a heroic stock picker with a cult-like following (which could eventually mean real money for you).

A couple of the standout stock-pickers so far are NASDAQ Trader and JOHN. NASDAQ Trader is up 41% on his (her?) WellQuest Medical & Wellness (WEQL) short trade, while JOHN is up 60% on a Federal Home Loan Mortgage (FMCC) long position. Both picks are just a few days old too.

LIke we mentioned last week, we're excited about what this community rating tool could do to benefit our readers, mainly because the crowd is usually right. Take a look at the 'jelly bean phenomenon' we explained last week to really understand why. The really cool part is, the bigger our stock-picking community gets, the more accurate the rankings become. We already took care of getting the votes out on Apple, so let's do another hot name for today.... Facebook (FB) Let 'er rip - just click here.

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Welcome back everybody. It's always tough to hit the ground running after a long weekend, isn't it? And, with the school year effectively over for almost everyone, the unofficial beginning of summer is here, making it doubly tough to get focused on stocks. Fortunately for all of us, the market is rarely short of things to talk about. Today's no exception.

Two things stuck out like sore (though bullish) thumbs today; you probably saw them both. One of them is the fact that the Conference Board's consumer confidence measure hit a five year high in May. The other was how home prices swelled last month more than they had in any other month for the past seven years. I'm not surprised about the latter - for months we've been saying housing is legitimately on the mend. As for the former though, color me surprised.

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Not exactly an eventful day for stocks on Friday (not that we don't know why). We'll take a more detailed look at the overall market in a second. First we wanted to answer a question that rolled in this week about our new stock-rating system. Kevin writes:

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Welcome back all. Hope you had a good weekend, and for those of you who are horse racing fans, we hope put some money on Preakness winner Oxbow. At 15-1 odds, it's pretty clear bettors didn't think much of him, but it just goes to show you that anything can happen. If you've got a hunch, sometimes the best thing to do is act on it even if the majority of the crowd doesn't agree. The same applies to picking stocks, by the way.

Anyway, more new highs from the market today, but with a red flag late in the session.