Whether the stock market bottoms today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or at some yet-to-be-determined point in the future, it's but a pebble on the road to economic recovery. That road is littered with obstacles, hairpin turns and drooling ogres hiding in the shadows, eagerly awaiting a crunchy, salty lunch of bottom-callers and rosy-eyed optimists.

It is, however, still a road whose path, as we often say in the ‘Ville, is more important than the destination. The road must be traveled, the destination must be sought, and for those brave enough, savvy enough and deft enough to protect their capital along the way, opportunities abound on the other side.

Whether it's the wrangling of Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) over what's left of Wachovia (WB), Bank of America's (BAC) most recent attempt to raise capital, rumors that Morgan Stanley's (MS) cash infusion from Mitsubishi may be in jeapardy, or the absolute terror in overnight money markets, the newsfeed is certainly bleak enough to represent a low.

Bottom-picking, however, can be dangerous business. One can't help but remember Joe Lewis, the British billionaire who famously invested $1 billion in Bear Stearns just months before it collapsed.

So before we bravely follow anyone bold enough to don his bull costume -- even temporarily -- let's remember that the bottom will be a process, not a point - and when true, legitimate recovery takes hold, there will be plenty of time to join the party.

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