no, i did not fall off the face of the earth.  i am alive but just returned home from an extended min-vacation, which i decided to extend once i saw what the market did on thursday and friday.  bulls and bears can, and i’m sure will, read into the action on those two days as they will but such large and unpredictable moves like we had late last week only help validate my decision to take step away from trading for a few days.  trust me, i’ve been trading long enough to know that anyone reading this has already listened to and read numerous pundits that proclaimed the big drop on thursday was very bearish because…________ , or that the big rally on friday was uber-bullish because __________(fill in the blanks).  however, as my instinct and experience as a trader told me to disengage from this market and step aside recently, that end of week whip-sawing not only confirms that i most likely avoided some large losses (or at least an ulcer or two) but that this market is still not offering a decent R/R profile on either side (long or short).  at times, i can day-trade with the best of them but huge opening gaps and sudden & powerful reversals that only the HFT machines can catch leave the retail trader with better odds of winning the lottery than successfully navigating this market IMO.  with that being said, i will dig into the charts tonight and tomorrow morning and try to share my thoughts on where we go from here.