Just caught Tom Lee's recent take on where the market's heading, and there's something worth paying attention to here. The Fundstrat co-founder basically laid out a thesis that retail investors are about to become the real engine driving stock gains over the next 18 to 24 months.

His reasoning is pretty straightforward - a lot of retail traders sat out during the previous volatility and panic selling. Now that things are settling down, he's expecting them to flood back in with serious buying power. Mix that with solid corporate earnings and you're looking at what he calls potentially one of the best periods investors could experience.

But here's where Tom Lee gets cautious. He's not saying it's smooth sailing from here. According to him, the market still needs to work through testing the new Fed Chair before we see any major rally unfold. So there's this near-term uncertainty that needs to play out first.

The retail investor angle is interesting because it suggests institutional money alone isn't enough to sustain the next leg up - you need that broader market participation. Whether that actually happens the way Lee expects is another question, but it's the kind of market dynamic worth monitoring right now.