Today is a day to give thanks.

I know it’s a little early for Thanksgiving, but I’m talking about being thankful to Uncle Sam and the U.S. government for the bountiful opportunity they have given us to make huge loads of money in a relatively short amount of time.

I’m talking about shorting U.S. debt via 2 specific, but very risky vehicles:

Wednesday I sold my full position in GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a provider of space-based and aerial imagery and geospatial information, at $20.75 per share.

The total amount in my portfolio was was for a 3/4 position out of a full position, accounting for about 25% of my portfolio.

What:

Wednesday I covered my short position in Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) at $39.90 per share.

AuthenTec (NASDAQ: AUTH), the world’s leading provider of fingerprint sensors and solutions to the PC, Wireless and Access Control markets, released their Q1/09 earnings and held their analyst conference call May 12th after the market closed.

Our favorite purveyor of adult fantasy, Rick’s Cabaret International (NASDAQ: RICK) reported results May 12th, and there appears to be good news on the horizon.

I am recommending immediate purchase of shares in Rick’s stock at or around $6-7 per share, and in fact I added to my position at $6.90 on May 13th.

Thursday will mark an important day, not only for the IPO market, but more so for the company that is riding the recent deal pipeline to come public at a time when having access to the public markets is critical.

DigitalGlobe (DGI), one of only 2 U.S. companies that offer commercial satellite imagery (GeoEye (NASDAQ: GEOY) is the other), to both the U.S. government via the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), as well as commercial and business customers such as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), will trade Thursday in a heated rush to take advantage of the window that has opened in the IPO market for established companies with real revenues and prospects.

GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a provider of space-based and aerial imagery and geospatial information, hit us with some good news, and a whole host of bad news today.

With GeoEye’s only U.S. competitor DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) going public later this week, lots of attention is being bestowed upon both companies as a true apples-to-apples comparison can now be made as it relates to their satellite fleets, valuations and prospects going forward.

Tuesday I initiated a short position on Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) at $39.60 per share.

The total amount shorted was for a 1/2 position out of a full position, accounting for about 15% of my portfolio.

It’s been 3 weeks (April 19th) since I advocated selling and/or shorting a whole slew of restaurant stocks on the basis that the entire sector had climbed much too far too fast, and there were several names that were ripe for the picking.

Since that recommendation, my average pick is beating the market by 11% vs. shorting the Russell 2000, which is the benchmark I use because these stocks are all small caps.

Rick’s Cabaret: Time To Buy

Rick’s Cabaret International (NASDAQ: RICK): Rick’s stock has been on an absolute tear in the last 1-2 months, more than tripling in price from a low of $2.50, to $7.50 before Thursday’s pull back.

I have been watching the trends at Rick’s as well as the chart and volume patterns, and everything looks bullish aside from Thursday’s down move along with the rest of the market.

We’ve had quite a recovery in the market from the lows reached in March, and many semiconductor stocks have followed suit.

While AuthenTec Inc. (NASDAQ: AUTH), a maker of fingerprint sensors, is no different, even with a recovery in its stock price from the absolute abyss, AuthenTec is still trading at a close-out price.

GeoEye (GEOY) provides space-based, and aerial imagery and geospatial information through high-resolution and low-resolution imagery, imagery-derived products, and image processing services to customers worldwide.

Rick’s Cabaret International, Inc., owns and operates upscale adult nightclubs serving primarily businessmen and professionals.

eHealth (NASDAQ: EHTH), the leading provider of Internet-based insurance agency services to individuals, families, and small businesses primarily in the United States, announced solid Q1/09 results after the market closed Tuesday.

As I had previously written about in my eHealth earnings preview, the company did exactly as I wanted, and should appease investors going forward.

The solar industry has taken it on the chin, for good reason if you ask me, in the last 8 months or so. Lately however, I feel that there is something to look at here, with possible best of breed companies working through the malaise to offer tempting prices for those with long term investing horizons.

Specifically, I’ll be looking at several companies that seem strong, even in the face of a decline in demand, eroding margins, and financing difficulties that are making large scale solar projects harder to implement.

It’s been a rather quiet quarter for eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH), the nation’s leading online source of health insurance for individuals, families and small businesses.

With their upcoming earnings for Q1/2009 set to be released after the market closes on April 28th, we’ll be able to check in on one of the stalwarts of the PeakStocks.com portfolio and a company that is up 35% since I originally recommended purchase last October, and is beating the overall market by 50%.

Let’s face it, people need to eat, and sometimes, yea, we like to treat ourselves and eat something a little above and beyond the normal fare.

Even in recessionary times, consumers can only hold off for so long before they eventually give in to at least SOME of life’s temptations and finer things.

GeoEye (GEOY) provides space-based, and aerial imagery and geospatial information through high-resolution and low-resolution imagery, imagery-derived products, and image processing services to customers worldwide.

Rick’s Cabaret International, Inc., (RICK) owns and operates upscale adult nightclubs serving primarily businessmen and professionals.

GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a provider of space-based and aerial imagery and geospatial information, is finally coming into focus much like the company’s flagship satellite, GeoEye-1

The company reported its fiscal 4th quarter and full year 2008 earnings, and with the report and subsequent analyst conference call, soothed investor’s fears and gave a small preview of the earnings and revenue driver that GeoEye has become now that they are firing on all cylinders.