The sector of companies focused on the online marketplace appear to be doing a great job as a whole in establishing an industry that I hope, for at least my own joy of bargain hunting, will be around for a long time to come.

I am certainly not the only investor who has given in to this belief either. I can’t find a single publicly traded online marketplace that has a trailing value below a treasury bill, which means people are willing to pay to take on risk in the industry in return for the expectation of growth.

I am only 22 and my experience in the market dates back barely a decade, but that is why I am lucky to be influenced by the foresight of investors like Benjamin Graham, who remind me about the popularity factor in stocks. He was around long enough to be influenced by the great depression and throughout his life he followed companies that were around for as long as he was; some doing just as good as him. But even though those companies have been around for so long, the best money and sometimes only money, was made when transactions of ownership were made at the right time.

That is why I am so happy to be getting involved in the market at this particular time. Owning stock in general is just not very popular right now and might continue to be unpopular for a while. For the portion of my life that I did not manage any of my own money a down market killed my mood. But this down market is now what I am looking for. Unemployment is barely over the natural rate, both of which are much lower than pre great depression era, and unlike a lot of other people I have a long time till I am going to retire and a depression is not something I fear or something that will ruin my life. I have barely begun to buy widely and this market is just beginning to open up the opportunities that I want.

Online travel booking sites have all shown that their is a growing demand for their services. Both of the giants, Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN) and Expedia Inc. (EXPE), reported end of the year earnings in February. They both showed positive revenue growth and they both had an increase in the gross amount of bookings.

The only one left is Orbitz Worldwide (OWW), which is set to report earnings on Thursday at 11:00am. Even though the numbers are looking in favor of online booking, it seems as though all the funds have rolled into Priceline and out of the competition.

Biodiesel is a relatively new (circa 1990ish commercially) clean burning alternative energy source that makes use of waste oil products, animal fats and vegetable oils. It has not really taken off much in the US, but most people critique that to be the fault of politics. Europe and China, on the other hand, have already begun to see a major demand for the product. The European Union, a signatory of the Kyoto agreements, has an incentive to use it because they have to reduce emissions and biodiesel burns a lot cleaner then petroleum based diesel. China's demand for biodiesel, however, is increasing alongside the domestic growth they are seeing, rising prices of oil and a step stool the government created for it.

The Chinese domestic growth over the last 15 or so years has been complemented and made possible in part by a significant increase in vehicles. Their government has realized that in this period of time categorized by massive development, they have the opportunity and ability to make clean burning energy sources a competitive alternative, and that is exactly what they have done. They have legislation in play that requires their petroleum selling companies to include bioliquid fuels in their selling scheme or otherwise be liable for the loss of the bioliquid fuel manufacturers. On top of that, they have permitted foreign investment in the category, which is why we have the opportunity to invest in companies like Gushan Environment Energy (GU).