Do I dare say it? I don't want to jinx myself, but it sure seems as if -- finally -- the coast is clear for long suffering stock investors. Earlier this month, the market put in a climactic low with many striking technical resemblances to the great bear market bottoms of the past.

And the rally we've seen in the past week or so is no slouch either. In terms of volume and breadth, as well as percentage gains, this move has the earmarks of a big, new uptrend that could carry the blue chip indexes to all-time highs by late 2008 or early 2009. Dow 16,000 here we come!

In short, we're now at one of those market junctures where the outlook is reasonably clear and time is of the essence. Time is of the essence? Yes, for you and me and anybody else who has money lying around that we could invest in stocks.

It's a fact of history that the market racks up its most dramatic gains in the opening weeks of a new advance. Later on, momentum fades and fewer stocks pull the indexes along. Now is the time to get aboard for the fattest, safest profits.

In the very near term (next two or three trading sessions), we're due for a modest pullback of perhaps 1%-3%.

What to buy? I'm warming to the oil stocks again. Yes, I recognize it's possible the energy sector could get roughed up a bit if the price of crude skids into the low $90s or upper $80s this spring. However, many leading oil stocks have come down sharply from their highs of three months ago. But stay tuned. I'll update you further once we have a clearer idea of which direction oil prices are headed.