It has been more than two months since I wrote my latest Lightning Round article - time goes by fast indeed. At the time of my last Lightning Round article, both the U.S. and European stocks saw the biggest weekly gain of the year. Now, it is the opposite in a wider time range.

I didn't expect things would get this bad for Europe, as Greece is getting ready to exit the eurozone and return to the drachma. While the Union is trying to keep Greece within the perimeter, I see little chance for such a success. Moreover, Spanish is on the horizon now, which led to a decline in U.S. stocks on Friday.

These days are among the foggiest days for the global economy, requiring extreme cautiousness when making a move. You need to handpick your stocks mercilessly and carefully, and think thrice before putting your money on them.

The world's most popular social networking site, Facebook (FB), launched its initial public offering (IPO) last Friday, May 18. On Thursday the 17th, Facebook announced the IPO stock price would be $38 per share. Just eight years after the social networking site was formed, its IPO is the third largest in the history of the United States, valuing the company at $104 billion.

Facebook stock opened around $42 on Friday, about 4 dollars above its IPO price. However, by the time markets closed Friday afternoon, it was just 23 cents above its IPO. Some see this lack of a market gain as a huge bust for Facebook's IPO, while other analysts are not surprised by the lack of volatility from its initial $38 per share price.

It is imperative to differentiate between a successful IPO for Facebook versus what its investors may have like to see. Facebook likely succeeded in

First Solar (FSLR) just has not caught a break. Its stock has been falling continuously for over one year now, hovering around $13 currently. It is unlikely that it has a break coming its way either, as it will likely continue the free-fall all the way to the bottom. Only one year ago it was priced over $100 and almost exactly four years ago was priced over $300. While previous prices have no bearing on current stock prices, seeing these old prices tells us not only where the company has been, but also where it never will be again.

The main driver of the decrease in its price is the decrease in the price of solar panels in general. The same force that has made it affordable to install solar panels on houses has also led to a decline in profitability for many solar companies, First Solar included. I think

On March 19, 2012, Apple (AAPL) announced plans to begin paying dividends for the first time since 1995. According to the release, Apple (AAPL) will pay out a $2.65 per share quarterly dividend during the "fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1." Apple, of course, has developed a cult following as the stock has taken a helicopter lift from $100 to $560 over the past three years. During this period, the faction of tech geek hipster Apple fan boys has spread to include owners of stock who lustily applaud every move that management makes. I today, represent Ebenezer Scrooge, and the voice of reason. I refuse to shill for dividend payments from any corporation allegedly in growth mode.

The Growth Story

Over the past three years, Apple is averaging 75-percent increases in net income growth. In its latest annual report, the company's 41-percent tallies in both

Each week I assemble my game plan for Monday morning with the objective of finding income opportunities. With a rise in volatility the income opportunities from selling call or put contracts becomes more and more enticing. But it comes at a price,as risk becomes a greater part of the equation.

After an unchecked stock market climb for the first three months of the year, my personal portfolio, which is almost always fully protected through the sale of covered calls, under-performed the market.

No surprise with a covered call strategy, but a large part of that, however, was due to the inability to sell calls on much of my holdings in ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF (ZSL) which had insidiously grown to a much too large position over the course of the year (When is Speculation not Speculative?). Although the underlying shares ultimately worked out well, leaving me with a more appropriately

I've been reading Seeking Alpha for a few years now, and I really enjoy the wide variety of topics that are covered. Of particular interest to me is the dividends and income section and the idea of building a portfolio of dividend growth stocks that will provide for me down the road.

I have learned so much about dividend growth investing from reading the awesome and powerful works of great investors like Chuck Carnevale, David Fish, David Van Knapp, and David Crosetti.

However, I guess I still have a knowledge deficit, because I continue to hold two of the worst performing stocks in recent memory in hopes of getting back to even. Today, I'd like to talk about the dividend disaster that is Arch Coal (ACI) and the potential dividend disaster in the making, Avon (AVP).

Arch Coal ( ACI )

U.S.-based Arch Coal, Inc. is a top five global coal producer

There was a time, long gone, when investors could diversify their risk by owning several asset classes, like stocks, bonds and commodities. They could rest assured that if one asset class went down it would be compensated by other asset classes. This strategy worked well for decades mostly because the players and investors into these different asset classes were different groups of people whose risk appetite was driven by different factors.

But that has changed over the past few years and in my opinion this is a permanent change. The main reason for this is the massive money printing which has created a mountain of cash chasing very few investment opportunities. A lot of this mountain of cash sits with the large institutional investors like pension funds, sovereign funds, banks and extremely high net worth individuals. These investors have access to every single asset class, geographical markets and the entire

By Jonathan Yates

In a recent Forbes column talking about investment classics - starting with books and ending with stocks, money manager Ken Fisher lauded Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) along with other promising stocks such as Mattel (MAT) and Applied Materials (AMAT).

There is no denying the appeal of Israel-based Teva to emerging market growth, value and income investors.

According to Fisher, Teva is now "the biggest generic drug maker, spanning 60 nations with 17 R&D centers. With low cost and strong emerging markets presence, expect low double-digit sales growth. It's cheap at 14 times earnings with a 2.3% dividend yield."

Demographics are also on the side of Teva. As the consumer class in emerging markets expands, the demand for generic drugs will increase dramatically.

The dividend of Teva stock, now around 2.50%, should appeal to emerging market income investors given the average yield for a stock on the S&P 500

Traders and the media have assumed a path-breaking turn in the ways and mores of the stock market: shareholders are going to rise up and be heard! Some have gone so far as to term this the Shareholder Spring, a reference to last year's Arab Spring, which upended old and deplorable regimes.

From Goldman Sachs (GS) to Pfizer (PFE) to Alcoa (AA), they must be shaking in their shoes, right?

Well, not exactly. In fact, they are all probably having a pretty relaxed Memorial Day. This week will see Wal-Mart's (WMT) shareholder meeting. It's their 50th anniversary and the meeting was expected to be light and airy, all celebratory and little cause for concern, until the recent Mexico bribery scandal. Now: management is expected to face hellfire and damnation from shareholders.

But hold the hyperbole. When Wal-Mart emerges from this anticipated shareholder revolt whole, the entire concept of this Shareholder

One of the most popular indicators of risk is a statistical measure called beta. Stock analysts use this measure all the time to get a sense of stocks' risk profiles.

Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility in relation to the market. By definition, the market has a beta of 1.0, and individual stocks are ranked according to how much they deviate from the market. A stock that swings more than the market over time has a beta above 1.0.

If a stock moves less than the market, the stock's beta is less than 1.0. High-beta stocks are supposed to be riskier but provide a potential for higher returns; low-beta stocks pose less risk but also lower returns.

All things being equal, the higher a company's beta is, the higher its cost of capital discount rate. The higher the discount rate, the lower the present value placed on the

Going into a four-day weekend many traders do not like to hold stocks. Personally, I am 50/50 on this one as the extra day often times can help when faced with a choppy overall market that we are in now. Below, I list a few stocks I think will have nice gains next week, provided we have a stable market, and the technicals indicate to me we should at least for next week.

Antares Pharma (AIS)

Antares engages in the development and marketing of self-injection pharmaceutical products and technologies, and topical gel-based products.

What to watch for:

The trading pattern today of split .5's normally indicates quiet short covering associated with the so called "Market Makers"(MM'S). Just about every time I see this type of trading activity with Antares, a large upside move occurs within three trading sessions. I also expect a near term update on the company's much talked

The markets roil relentlessly as China's economy seemingly stammers and the eurozone continues to have an identity crisis. China seems to be crumbling under its own weight, while the eurozone can't decide whether to go on a spending spree or batten down the hatches. What's more, the eurozone's bipolar behavior has led some to postulate the entire political union may buckle, bringing down global markets with it as riotous revolutionaries flood the streets.

Today, the front page headline of the Financial Times stated The "Cult of Equity" is dead. The lead piece stated global stocks have not been so far out of favor for half a century, prompting many market watchers to declare the "cult of the equity" dead. Andreas Utermann, chief investment officer of the Allianz division that manages €300 billion in assets, stated. "Ultimately what is going on is that fundamental tenets of capitalist society are being questioned."

A few years ago when I was buying shares of Ford (F) at prices below $2, my friends kept telling me I was crazy. They told me I was throwing good money after bad money. Then my investment in Ford returned me about 900% in 3 years. Now the same friends are saying the same thing to me as I add to my Nokia (NOK) shares at prices below $3 - not to mention when I increased my Bank of America (BAC) exposure when it fell below $5 last year. Many people say "you are just speculating," however, I wouldn't call buying shares of Nokia speculation, just like I wouldn't call buying shares of Ford as a speculation in 2009. Speculation is something different.

This is an example of speculating: XYZ is a drug company that never got FDA approval in its history. Currently it is working on a secret

It is said that bad things come in threes. A case where this is explicitly true is when it comes to secular bear markets for stocks. History has shown that when stocks enter such periods of prolonged decline that three major corrections occur before a new secular bull market begins. And to date in the current secular bear market that began in 2000, we have only experienced two sharp declines. Thus, history suggests that one more major stock market correction still lies ahead before we reach the dawn of a new sustained rise in stocks.

Dating back to the Buttonwood Agreement in 1792, U.S. stocks have experienced prolonged secular bull markets periods of steady gains followed by similarly extensive secular bear market phases of choppy declines. These bear phases occur to cleanse the excesses that were built up in the market system from the prior bull cycle and have historically

What could be better than a double digit return on a security? Low interest rates have been a boon for mREITs. That is, residential mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs). Equities that are classified as mREITs often hold non-agency and agency mortgages. An mREIT with agency securities has government sponsored enterprise (GSE) backed mortgages for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the United States government.

American Capital Agency (AGNC) is an agency mREIT. AGNC purchases residential mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) from GSEs such as, Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) (the Federal National Mortgage Association), Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Ginnie Mae (the Government National Mortgage Association). AGNC is externally managed by American Capital AGNC Management, LLC, and an affiliate of American Capital, Ltd ("American Capital"). The company was founded on January 7, 2008 and headquarters are located in Bethesda, MD.

What

Here we go again, with the eurozone leading investors and global markets down the primrose path once more. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders how they are able to time these European upheavals with the end of earnings season. Has anyone else noticed this coincidence? One thing I'm sure of is every correction brings out the prophets of doom in droves. All the positive economic and fundamental data is forgotten and the focus on negative headlines becomes inordinate. Consequently, correlation and volatility in stocks rises substantially. Stocks resemble ships at sea rising and falling in unison with the ebb and flow of the bad news tide.

Nevertheless, discerning investors are able to distill the positives ... you are able to buy unjustly sold off quality stocks at a discount price. With index funds and ETFs being sold ad nauseum, many stocks are sold indiscriminately, creating oversold conditions in fundamentally strong

Jim Cramer has been the host of Mad Money on CNBC since 2005. Nearly 250,000 people watch his show daily on TV. Among 110 stocks that were recommended on Jim Cramer's Mad Money during the last 30 days, we have compiled his favorite buy recommendations based on number of days the stocks were recommended. By comparing the short-term performances of his picks during the few days after his recommendations, we found that he has no direct impact on the stocks he is recommending. However, in the long run, his picks are extremely successful as can be seen in the below graphs. Our study interval is one year. We obtained average sector ratios from Yahoo Finance and all other market data from Finviz.

We Are DIY Investors...Just Like You

By way of background, Parsimony Investment Research is a group of Do-It-Yourself investors that whole-heartedly believe that individuals can and should educate themselves and manage their own money. That is, of course, if you are willing to dedicate the time and patience necessary to do so. In today's low interest rate environment, paying even modest fees to a financial advisor can significantly eat into your profits. At the end of the day, it's YOUR money and you alone are the best shepherd of your capital.

We started Parsimony to share our experiences, strategies and research with fellow DIY investors. At the end of the day, we are all in the same boat…so let's set sail and preserve and grow our wealth together!

Building A DIY Dividend Portfolio

Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to highlight our top-ranked dividend stocks

By Mark Goldstein

Baidu (BIDU), the China-based Search Engine famously labeled the Google (GOOG) of China, recently announced that it was entering the smartphone market with the ChangHong H5018, a device that resembles Nokia's (NOK) Lumia 800, but is powered by a hybrid (or "forked") version of Google's Android OS called Baidu Yi.

The obvious question is why a search provider like Baidu is developing its own Android device rather than taking the obvious route and asking known OEMs like Samsung (SSNLF.PK) or HTC to create one for it. The first answer is that Baidu, taking a page out of Google's playbook, is developing its own smartphone to serve as a delivery mechanism for its services.

The second answer is that going to companies like Samsung and HTC would probably have resulted in a device much more expensive than one that local firms like Huawei or any of the smaller