Cypress Sharpridge Investments (CYS) calls itself a specialty finance company. I call it 'the great American Housing Bubble profit maximizer and capital markets equalizer for the small investor'.

The National Association of Realtors recently noted that nearly one third of all existing home sales in 2011 were made to investors. Forty-six percent of these sales were cash transactions. For the homeowner that has been foreclosed on, due perhaps to a job loss, those figures certainly offer little comfort. Matter of fact, it's almost obscene when one discovers that the rich really do get richer during recessions being they are generally the only ones with the economic firepower who can swoop in with cash to buy up real estate at depressed prices.

But this is a well known fact of the U.S. business and economic cycle and it has been going on since since the days of the

Global Payments, Inc. (GPN) shares plunged on Friday following a report that secure customer data had been compromised. On Wednesday, March 27th, prior to the bad news, the stock hit a 52 week high of $53.93 as investors had begun looking forward to Global's earnings announcement which is due out after market close on Wednesday, April 4th. The stock plummeted as low as $45.45 per share by 11:40 AM EDT on Friday.

This may provide a potential payoff for speculators and investors willing to gamble that the earnings will be on target and the stock recovers from the irrational sell-off. Global Payments will be holding a press conference on Monday morning to address customer and merchant concerns. Should the conference go well and the assurances to be given by the company accepted by investing community, there is the potential for an immediate 5-10% immediate recovery in the shares.

Citigroup Inc. (C) began life as a merchant bank on June 16th, 1812 as City Bank of New York with U.S. Postmaster General Samuel Osgood as President. Two days later, the U.S. declared War on Britain and thus began what was to become known as the War of 1812 which lasted for three long years and saw the U.S. Capital building in Washington D.C. burned to the ground. In 1813, Citibank paid shareholders it first dividend. By 1894, it had grown to be the largest bank in the United States. (for the rest of this article, Citibank and Citigroup will be used interchangeably)

Citibank has a long list of firsts: It was the first bank to establish foreign exchange trading back in 1897, the first to issue traveler's checks in 1904, the first bank to contribute to the U.S. Federal Reserve system in 1913, and the first U.S.-based bank to

Apple (AAPL) has been on a tear for the past four months and as astute investors know what goes up must come down. It is interesting that the mainstream financial press dares not speak negatively about Apple. Meanwhile, across the Pacific, Samsung is quietly picking up steam and Samsung Electronics (SSNLF.PK) (005930.KS) share price has doubled from a year ago. Not only does Samsung profit from Apple whether Apple's share price is high or low due the components it makes for Apple devices, but Samsung is often favored by in the know techies in Asia over Apple.

Samsung has long been a leader in product design aesthetics and one might be amazed should one visit an electronics store in Korea. I recall back in 1999 on a visit to Korea being blown away by innovative products that left me scratching my head in wonderment until it finally dawned on

Wendy's (WEN) is the kind of stock investors may wish to consider holding during a high risk or jittery stock market, a market that may sell off at the drop of a hat or if a European banker sneezes. Two factors that make this stock attractive are its low beta and potential longer term upside based on Wendy's turnaround story.

A stock's beta more or less gauges how the price of a particular stock moves in comparison to the overall market. A beta of 1 would imply the stock would move in sync with the market. A beta of less than one means it would most likely not move either up or down as high or as low as the market moves on any given day. By the same principal, stocks with high betas, or greater than one, tend to move comparatively higher or lower than the average stock in

Need a job in biotech? How about pharmaceutical sales? Affymax (AFFY) is hiring. In fact, it is currently advertising for the following positions on its website: Sales Representative; Associate Director, Brand Marketing; Associate Director, Medical Education (Medical Affairs); Associate Director, R&D Applications; Bio/Pharma Sales Reporting Analyst; Clinical Support Specialists; Contract Statistical Programmer; Director, Drug Safety Operations; Director, Quality Assurance; District Sales Manager; Medical Science Liaison; Manager, Medical Affairs Publication Planning; Senior Sales Compensation Analyst.

As an investor, every piece of information on a prospective investment should be considered, and when I see a company ramping up its sales machine, I know instinctively things are about to happen. In the case of Affymax, it is anticipated that on March 27, 2012, the FDA will give its nod of approval on the company's kidney drug peginesatide.

Although there are no guarantees the greenlight will be given, there are some recent positive

Wendy's (WEN) earnings call today was an eye opener. For investors willing to buy in now while the stock price hovers around $5 per share, Wendy's offers a compelling opportunity. Wendy's is currently kicking off a three year turnaround plan that got underway last fall with its new Hot 'N Juicy burgers and a new addition to the burger lineup called the W.

The turnaround strategy is a comprehensive one, calling for not only a revamping of stores from the inside out, but a total image makeover involving retraining from top to bottom and ensuring that all employees have a smiling face and a can-do attitude starting with top management. If franchisees do not wish to go along, Wendy's may just opt to buy them out or hook marginal franchises up with winners that believe in the turnaround story. Top management today noted that they have a considerable number

Gold investors have hit a home run over the past ten years, picking up an annual return somewhere in the ball park of 16%. Astute speculators that have paid close attention to the stellar run-up in gold may wish to begin preparing for the inevitable price collapse. Deutsche Bank's Exchange Traded Note (DZZ) offers one of the best ways to bank profits on this collapse without going directly into the futures market.

It is my belief that a 76% return is possible from DZZ should gold collapse from $2100 to $1300 per ounce. This is the scenario I am now preparing for. There are many indicators that the gold price will soon top. The main one being Europe is now plunging into recession and folks will begin cashing in their gold to buy their basic necessities, such as food, housing and gas. Small businesses will also find themselves in a

Dell (DELL) delivered earnings of $0.51 per share. On a one-penny miss, finicky analysts that apparently have not lived through a serious recession are now running for cover, calling for an end to the PC, the demise of Dell to its competitor Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) or continuing the misguided comparison of Dell to Apple (AAPL). Dell and Apple are about as similar as a basket of miniature iPhones and a basket of Dell Solutions and Services consultants.

The obituary of the PC may be a bit premature. Dell (DELL) is on a roll. According to Gartner, Dell shipped a whopping 11.6 million PCs during the 4th quarter of 2011. And hey, this in the middle of a world-wide recession. Long live the PC!

It never ceases to amaze me when the mainstream financial press latches on to ridiculous notions such as the iPhone is going to make the PC obsolete. I don't know about you, but my iPhone simply cannot do what my laptop can - period. Apple (AAPL)-mania, which has dominated the press of late, reminds me of the tech bubble rhetoric ala 2000/2001. Investors may wish to read between the lines of a few balance sheets and they might just re-think the notion that a miniature cell phone will soon replace the PC.

A good place to start is by taking a look at

Alcatel-Lucent's (ALU) earnings will be released on Friday, February 10. For the past few weeks the stock's volatility has proven rewarding for speculators that have paid close attention to the pre-earnings news cycle. Both negative and positive news can impact a stock's price, especially when the stock carries a high beta such as ALU's 2.53. Add to the mix a highly volatile and an anxious market trading on low volume, and we have the perfect storm for making money.

Although one might question the timing of what might be viewed as negative articles that always seem to surface around earnings season, investors must nevertheless investigate the information thoroughly in order to determine the validity and potential impact it might have on the stock's price. For example, a recent article presented by one business writer asks the question "is Alcatel-Lucent hiding weakness"?

After carefully examining this information, I conclude that the

Barnes & Noble (BKS), with over 700 retail book selling outlets, recently announced that it would no longer carry books published by Amazon.com at its retail stores. What can one say to such a strategy? "What?" "Are they nuts?" "What a bunch of whiners." "Can't take the competition, huh?" "Are you going to take your ball and bat and run home?"

Reminds me of when my pal Lefty and I put ants in Junior Walker's baseball mitt back in the summer of 1967. Junior ran home with his ball, but we soon found another in the preacher's backyard, where we had landed it the week before. No big deal. We were still in the game.

And why would anyone want to buy the stock of a company that is admitting defeat in the face of competition?

I am an avid reader and book collector and a long time Barnes &

ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500 ETF (SPXU) players get ready!

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's latest statements put the last piece of the puzzle in place for investors wondering where the markets are headed next.

Chairman Bernanke has suggested the need for QE3 in April if unemployment persists at current levels. But that in my opinion is not the real reason for more fed money printing (I am using this term loosely to include various fed easing tools to include bond buying, asset buying, etc.,). The need for QE3 is all about Europe after Greece completes it default in March (yes, Greece is already in default). This has recently become quite clear as IMF Chief Christine Lagarde has called on world governments to commit more SDRs to the International Monetary Fund in two recent speeches.

"I am convinced that we must step up the Fund's lending capacity.

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) may be ready for a sizable move upwards. At its current price level and given its recent momentum, low P/E 5.85, and a high beta of 2.39, ALU could soon jump north of $2.00 and keep on going, perhaps upwards of the $2.56 to $2.75 range. This could happen within a matter of weeks, even if there is initial negative reaction to its upcoming earnings report.

Over the past week, ALU has received several positive upgrades and comments from industry analysts. It has also received a couple of downgrades from a few shortsighted analysts barking for the M&A crowd in hopes of generating big banking and consulting fees for investment bankers.

Last week ALU's stock price topped $2.00 per share for the first time in more than two months. The recent negative news from Juniper Networks (JNPR), LM Ericson (ERIC), and AT&T (T) had no significant

Today, speculators and long-term investors who believe in an Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) turnaround story will have the opportunity to pick up more Alcatel-Lucent stock on the cheap as weaker traders get flushed out of the market due to irrational selling based on LM Ericsson's (ERIC) negative earnings report.

Ericsson reported a 66% drop in profits, attributing much of the drop to a fall off in U.S. network sales to AT&T (T), which halted infrastructure roll-outs while it played a losing game of chess with federal regulators over the proposed ATT/T-Mobile merger. The ATT drop off appears to be the only real surprise to Ericsson. However, this simply means more business in the future when ATT refocuses on internal build-out rather than M & A activity. The world has not come to end.

In fact, Ericsson in my opinion is doing exactly what is needed to become a more efficient enterprise in

IBM's Global Technology Services division is now a key growth component to IBM's revenue stream. A critical part of that division is a team of smart grid experts that are now jet-setting around the globe as International Business Machines becomes a leading player in the race to integrate back and front-end solutions for utility companies and other business enterprises world-wide. Over the past couple of years, IBM has picked up some of the brightest minds in the industry to manage this part of its business.

IBM, after selling its PC division to China's Lenovo (LNVGF.PK), has successfully positioned itself to become the world's preeminent technology company for the 21st Century through its Smart Planet initiative. And IBM's smart grid guys helped drive the 47% increase in IBM's Smart Planet initiative revenues for 2011.

Investors may recall that IBM was one of the few DOW 30 companies to

Reading Leucadia National’s 2010 Annual Report, I immediately became enthused. Not only was the report written in a highly entertaining manner palpable to the layman, it was also full of amazing facts about this company which compel me to immediately add its stock (LUK) to my watch list for potential investment in 2012 and beyond.

First, an amusing but on the mark tidbit from the 2010 annual report:

The day this was being written, the Morning Joe television talking heads announced that the unemployment rate fell below 9% after hovering close to 10% the past 21 months. One of us is an immigrant who arrived here at age 15. Since that age, he marveled at the resilience of Americans to get up, get to work, and fix any problem. Less than 9% unemployment suggests America may be getting back up and back to work again.

There are, nonetheless, several

An IPO generally raises cash for the purpose of growing and expanding a business, but not all IPOs are created equal. Take Sanchez Energy (SN) for instance, an oil and gas company that went public in December, raising 200 million dollars. The IPO was underwritten by Johnson Rice & Co. LLC and Macquarie Capital Inc.

Johnson Rice & Co. LLC is a New Orleans-based investment company founded in 1987 specializing in the both the retail and oil and gas industries. Johnson Rice claims to have nine senior analysts and thee associate analysts covering companies in both industries. Interestingly enough Sanchez Energy does not appear to be one of the companies currently covered by their analysts. The fact that the underwriter of an IPO does not follow the security it brought public should be an immediate red flag to investors.

Macquarie Capital Inc. is a subsidiary of Macquarie Group,

A month or so back, I presented an on-the-street assessment of my view on two major retailers with a presence in Laredo, Texas. I noted the empty parking lot of our recently built Best Buy (BBY) superstore and the continuous shopping frenzy going on a block away at our recently built TJ Maxx (TJX).

As of December 28, 2011, not much had changed...other than a peculiar sign hanging from the outer wall of Best Buy advertising space for lease within the store. Is this the beginnning of the end for Best Buy?

Best Buy now has a web page on its website dedicated to its leasing effort:

As the nation's number one electronics retailer, Best Buy has accumulated a high profile surplus real estate portfolio encompassing retail locations and land, with presence throughout the country. Our portfolio encompasses inline and free standing space ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 square

Based on recent data from the NY Fed (pdf), the so-called recovery in housing appears to be more Wall Street hype than reality. According to the third-quarter Fed report:

Mortgage originations, which we measure as appearances of new mortgages on consumer credit reports, fell for a second consecutive quarter, to $292 billion. Mortgage originations in 2011Q3 were 17% below their 2011Q2 level and 24.7% below their levels of a year ago. At $292 billion, mortgage originations in 20011Q3 were at their lowest level since mid-2000.

About 2.5% of current mortgage balances transitioned into delinquency during 2011Q3, reversing a recent trend of reductions in this measure. The rate of transition from early (30-60 days) into serious (90 days or more) delinquency also rose slightly, to 31.3%. This deterioration was accompanied by a significantly lower cure rate, with the transition rate from early delinquency to “current” decreasing over four percentage points