Many analysts and traders will cite fundamentals or technicals to explain why the market might or might not rally from this level. In the end, it all comes down to sentiment and market dynamics.

In these volatile times, traders are known for rapidly switching from euphoric optimism to gloomy pessimism. For evidence of this you simply need to watch Cramer for several weeks in a row. I've found that in any given longer-term period, Cramer has a huge tendency to "flip-flop" on his opinions of companies, industries, and the overall market. But he's not to blame -- nearly all of Wall Street's short-term players are like this.

Truth is, the most recent downturn in the market (excluding Thursday and Friday) was much more than noise, and I firmly believe that the Fed cutting rates saved the market, at least over the short term (futures were pointing way down for Friday before the Fed raised).

However, I think the market has to rally if Monday is an up day. Why? Because Wall Street players, which had been so powerfully negative on the market over the last few weeks, will have to shift their position on the markets and increasing their "net-long" exposure. In doing so, they will likely be forced to cover some shorts and add to some longs -- increasing demand for stocks. I believe that this factor was a primary cause of the rocketing market on Friday and, from who I've spoken to, many funds have no adequately adjusted their net-long exposure and are waiting for a "confirmation move" on Monday.

While Atticus Capital isn't a household name for most people, the hedge fund's ability to find undervalued and mismanaged names is undeniable. The $13 billion fund run by Timothy Barakett performed extraordinarily last year, booking net gains of 45% in 2005 and, according to a variety of sources, more than 30% net for 2006. The firm's strategical focus on concentrated bets has clearly been paying off.

As I discussed in my "Introduction to Piggyback Investing" post, the focus on these columns will be to analyze positions held in a smart money fund via its 13F-HR filing and other sources. According to the fund's 13F-HR, Atticus Capital's fund has several interesting "core" ideas, as well as an interesting sector bet developing.

One large position in the fund is Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP), a seller of gypsum wallboard and cement. Eagle Materials is certainly an interesting stock, but it's also very cyclical. With a clean balance sheet and an EV/EBITDA multiple of less than 7, the stock could potentially be undervalued at these levels. However, I'd choose to buy USG (NYSE: USG) over Eagle Materials because SHEETROCK is a very powerful brand and the stock appears cheaper than EXP (cheaper on pretty much every multiple, e.g 5.7 EBITDA vs. 7x EBITDA for EXP). Throw in the Buffett/Tilson/Fairholme/Weitz/Berkowitz/Whitman/Janus Contrarian ownership factor, and I think USG is remarkably attractive.

As the markets become more and more efficient and finding ideas is becoming more difficult for investors, the style of piggyback investing has emerged. Simply put, 'piggybacking' is following the smart money and making investment decisions based on the publicly-available position sheets of the best investors. By law, the majority of funds are required to release a list of their holdings to the SEC database via 13F-HR filings. Also, activists and any passive investor with a stake greater than or equal to 5% in a given company are required to file 13G or 13D filings. Therefore, it's not very difficult to follow the smart money these days.

Proponents of this school of thought, notably James Altucher of Stockpickr.com and TheStreet.com, argue that it makes much more sense for the individual investor to simply track and cherrypick the best ideas from the smartest investors' portfolios rather than try and interpret news events or randomly sort through stocks. And, for the most part, I tend to agree. As an individual investor, and more importantly a blogger, I constantly struggle to find new and interesting ideas to write about or invest in and I've found that this method has worked well to help me find new potential investments and create interesting watchlists.