It is sad to say, but it seems to me that investors trust corporations more than the US government.  Given the choice would you rather invest in politicians by buying bonds that yield next to nothing in return for your investment or invest in Procter and Gamble, GE, Microsoft or even Google?  I know that the government will certainly spend the money on something that may or may not benefit the country.  Financially, we are so overleveraged it is a joke with China owning the majority of our trillion plus dollar debt?  We would certainly be bankrupt if we were a corporation.  Market competition demands that companies hire the best minds to earmark investment for something that will benefit the Company giving it a competitive advantage.  The Company has to make money or its debt load will eventually sink it below the minimum listing requirements of an exchange resulting in bankruptcy.  Not a good investing opportunity.  Investors are looking for hot stocks. Stock market analysis points many directions when looking at the current market in respect to other periods of enormous default on notes.  It’s certain banks will fail, companies will fail and the government will falter.  However, large corporations and agile corporations that have good access to capital in conjunction with a unique business model will flourish. Defensive sectors and the DOW in general as a defensive market for world investments leads me to like the US markets and the Swiss market cause they are above the law with caves full of gold.

So 12,000-15,000 on the DOW between 2011 and 2013 is greatly possible and remember that trading futures is extremely risky.  It should only be attempted by very experienced investors who have filled out the necessary FINRA compliance paper work with their broker dealer in addition to consulting a FINRA Registered Representative before making any investment decision.

For the best daily stock picks and penny stocks visit Speculatingstocks.com and join the stock newsletter.

Okay, back to hot stocks and my daily stock picks.  Well back to South America.  Right now almost every country is showing huge growth as the world needs the non durables that Mexico, Central America and South America are exporting.  The year over year growth in these countries is staggering.  In addition, the average age and buying power is shifting as there is increasing buying power from a younger average demographic and a burgeoning middle class or lower middle class.  Any country exporting to these countries or even investing in some of the foreign markets as securities creates enormous opportunity.  We are involved in exportation to the aforementioned countries and always are asked by our distributors if we can send electronics, recreational items and other durables.  They are so expensive in these countries and limited that there is a huge opportunity for those who are willing to respect the cultural demand of doing business primarily in Spanish, respecting the culture and providing good customer service.  The cell phone business is exploding with just a few carriers providing coverage for potentially millions of subscribers.  These are good companies to invest in as a sector, ADR or direct investment as recommended by your FINRA registered investment advisor.

All tourist businesses are flourishing in these countries as they are incredible destinations.  Having traveled to many of these countries, it is mind boggling how affordable a vacation is.  Casinos, jungles, volcanoes, pristine empty beaches, surf breaks, archeological discoveries of Mayan temples and Inca architectural brilliance, countries embracing foreigners…just a portion of what a couple thousand dollars US will buy you for two.  You can’t spend money even if you try.  5 lobsters, 5 beers and all the fresh fish you can eat will set you back 10 dollars.  3,000 sq foot luxury hotel rooms with your own pool overlooking the ocean will set you back 50 dollars a night.  The only sad note that must be added here is that the relative cost of traveling reflects upon the rampant poverty as the gap between the rich and poor is staggering.
Some of these countries have an average annual income of approximately $2,000.  The strengthening exporting power in these countries is helping this situation a bit in addition to the growing tourist industry, but this disparity is an enormous gap not to be soon narrowed.  Surprisingly, Columbia is now considered one of the safest countries to travel in with Nicaragua being the second fastest growing economy in Central America while sadly Mexico has one of the highest murder rates per capita in the world.  Kidnapping and ransom is another issue in some countries so caution is always recommended while investing or traveling though the most dangerous thing you can do is get behind the wheel in the US with someone texting next to you.  Just a bit of perspective on the warped sense of reality the US media feeds us.

So I’m just going to break it down on investing in the current market from the macro side.  I just spoke to a close friend who returned from Columbia.  Basically everything laid out from an economic analysis of their observations regarding the country further strengthens the stock market trends that we have been observing and reporting in our various stock newsletters.  The fact is that the strongest economies currently are those of exporters.

More specifically exporters of non durables where the country has limited exposure to the primary tidal wave of bank debacles associated with mortgage backed securities and the coming tidal wave of potentially devastating exposure of banks that own the debt from the commercial real estate market.  In the US, the regional banks have been falling like dominos and are either taken over by the FDIC or absorbed by investing groups that plan on creating the next round of debt related exotic securities.  This time the notes are from the billions of bad debt related to commercial property.

It is a simple pattern in the US that has been repeated a number of times.  This is perhaps the most devastating economic crisis the country has ever faced.  Basically the dollar is weak.  Companies in the US laid people off. This in combination with a huge number of loans on residential property handed out like hot cakes to non qualified investors.  Then the trading of this d and f or Omega in reality as my economist friend likes to liken it too, the last letter in a dead language quality wise.  Companies are no longer able to pay their rent.  Retail space has also been built out too quickly and even those buildings and strip malls once considered sure bets for high occupancy rates instead have record rates of available space.  This creates another phenomenon of commercial notes becoming non-performing and the banks are forced to rate it as bad debt.

Now the big four banks are decently positioned with their (our) TARP bailout money and other revenue streams to handle the bad debt on their books.  They have just stopped loaning and are pushing towards opening new accounts and fee based money management.  The huge problem is the billions of commercial real estate debt owned by the regional banks that did not receive any bailout money.  In Southern California, there are many regional banks that fit into this sad reality.  In fact, we’ve had a chance to look over many opportunities for investing in notes from various regional banks.  So investing tip number one, and this is difficult for us to admit as my life has been surrounded by stock picks for more than 15 years, BUY debt on commercial properties.  There are amazing opportunities out there to pick up the debt on commercial properties that are still performing.  Often the debt can be purchased for a 50%-70% discount to face value.  Further negotiations with the current owners of the property can increase that margin significantly as eventual failure and non-performance on the debt is likely and complete ownership will ensue.

SpeculatingStocks.com Releases 3 Scary Good Stock Picks for Halloween

SpeculatingStocks.com has chosen BIDZ, IVN and ATVI as its 3 Scary Good Stock Picks for Halloween and beyond!

October 28, 2008 — SpeculatingStocks.com has released 3 Stock Picks for Halloween and beyond! Begin watching the stock picks below. SpeculatingStocks.com believes they will start moving to the upside this Halloween week.

BIDZ is an online jeweler, somewhat of a niche mini-eBay in the used jewelry space online. SpeculatingStocks.com’s second stock pick, IVN is a small cap, gold penny stock currently in talks with the Mongolian government to receive approval to develop a copper and gold mine in the country. For IVN, approval from the Mongolian government could be a watershed event for them and their partner Rio Tinto. Their third scary good stock pick released is ATVI. Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is positioned for rapid growth through their World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Guitar Hero brands.

SpeculatingStocks.com founder Russ Urban commented, “We believe these stock picks have a great shot at creating significant returns for investors.”

SpeculatingStocks.com Stock Pick: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN)

Stock Price: $1.94

Ivanhoe Mines, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mineral exploration and development company. The company holds interests in and conducting operations on mineral resource properties principally located in Central Asia and Australia as well as projects in Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

On September 30th, a company executive from IVN commented that he saw no reason for IVN’s drop. At that time, IVN was trading at $6.40. IVN has been severely oversold and now appears to have finally found a bottom just below the $2.00 level.

Rio Tinto, one of the largest mining companies in the World, is a strategic partner of Ivanhoe Mines. IVN and Rio Tinto are negotiating with Mongolia’s government to develop a copper and gold mine in the country.

They are looking to develop the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia’s South Gobi Region. If IVN receives approval by the Mongolian government, we could see IVN shares rebound and correct big to the upside.

We believe gold will rebound and benefit IVN as well.

SpeculatingStocks.com Stock Pick: BIDZ.com, Inc. (BIDZ)

Stock Price: $6.22

BIDZ.com, Inc. is an online jewelry retailer offering its products through a live auction format at Bidz.com as well as a fixed price online retail store at Buyz.com.

BIDZ has been profitable the past several quarters. We believe BIDZ will benefit by people selling their gold jewelry.

BIDZ is currently trading at a market cap of only around $147 million, which we believe is low considering their growing brand and future potential.

BIDZ could see a major short squeeze with over 25% of its 12.12 million float short.

SpeculatingStocks.com Stock Pick: Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI)

Stock Price: $11.69

Activision Blizzard, Inc. operates as an online and console game publisher. Some of the company’s brands include World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.

We believe ATVI is the #1 gaming stock in the stock market right now with the most future potential in its industry. World of Warcraft is about as big of a money maker as it gets in the gaming industry.

It is speculated that ATVI could be releasing Starcraft II around February or March of 2009. The original Starcraft is still regarded as one of the greatest games of all time and Starcraft II is expected to be a huge money maker as well.

Guitar Hero is very popular with console gamers. Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft create a ton of positive buzz marketing for Activision Blizzard. We believe it will be hard for any other gaming company to compete with ATVI.

ATVI is down at pre-Blizzard merger levels and appears significantly undervalued at a market capitalization of around $15.4 billion.

It is important to find great companies at the right time in their stock charts. We expect the stocks mentioned above to become hot stocks after the recent stock market downturn.