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Cheniere Energy (LNG) has been doing very well lately for a variety of reasons related to its surroundings, despite the energy sector being very competitive.

This is a 6-month graph of LNG from stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui. Just take a look at that for a moment. It is absolutely beautiful, having a strong uptrend for the last 4 months. If you had bought it around the end of November, for instance, you would have made ~33% return on it. That right there is simply amazing. According to data.cnbc.com/quotes/LNG, these other statistics are also noteworthy:

Beta: .91- thus the company moves very similarly to US markets, which have hit several records the past few weeks.

52-week change: 62.58%- another staggering statistic, and charts show no sign of this letting up.

Today alone the stock increased nearly 6% in value, more in one market day than it has for many months.

Cheniere's industry is also quite favorable at the moment, as it is trying to diminish natural gas import/export prices and intends on making them cheap within a few years (thanks to the Market Currents here). Unlike a company like VRNG, LNG is always working on different things, helping it maintain stability. At this rate it could hit $30.00 by the end of this month, maybe higher.

So, now is a crucial time to take advantage of the combination of extremely bullish market days and the incredible snowballing of LNG's prices up where it hasn't been for over a year (www.thestreet.com/story/11869882/1/cheni...). Buy plenty of shares today!

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in LNG over the next 72 hours.

When constructing the blueprint to your portfolio, there are a few tips to consider to prevent overspecializing your selections. Follow this commonly heard advice all in one package.

1. Balance risk.

Generally, you want to put some risk into your portfolio in order to actually have a chance of making a profit. Generally, the higher the beta of a stock, the riskier it is to invest in it, but ensure your risks are controlled and carefully well-thought out. However, do not make all of your selections ridiculously risky in such a way that a $50,000 portfolio is valued at $120,000 within the first month and then plummets to $40,000 in the next. At the same time, if you pick solely low-risk stocks, your portfolio's value will move so slowly that you will not get much excitment and more importantly, profit. The ideal portoflio will have an average beta of around 1.00.

2. Check the charts.

This one is common sense: never invest in a stock based on market currents alone; always look at a chart first, to ensure the stock is not doomed to plummet 25% the next market day.

3. Variety is vital.

Never make all of your investments in the same sector--it is too risky, even if the sector is generally stable. If one stock drops, the others are likely to follow, resulting in a heavier loss to your portfolio. If you strongly believe in one stock, just put more shares into it.

4. Check the market regularly.

It is also crucial to check your portfolio every day in case you need to make a quick sell before an oncoming crash or a very high potential offer appears--fast acting is crucial in the rough waters of the market.

Overall, these four bits of advice should regularly considered when playing games in the market.

I've been looking at two major credit card ETFs lately, Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V). To get an overview of their behavior, take a look at this graph from CNBC.com:

(click to enlarge)

The behavior of the two stocks has been quite similar over the past year but there are some distinctions between the two. Mastercard's 52 week range is $204.01, while Vista's 52 week range is much smaller, only $51.11. Therefore, MA is more volatile as its stock value changes faster. Interestingly, both companies have no debt.

Also, the beta factor of MA has decreased in the recent time period, while that of V has increased.

Candlestick graphs are always great to have access to. Here is one for Visa (over 6 months):

(click to enlarge)

While Visa has been going primarily upward, it has yet to "fill in a gap" that was created a little less than three months ago, around the beginning of February 2012.

Particularly recently, the stock alternates between having a few bearish days and a few bullish days, and as a result, since this began to happen, the price of the stock did not changed much (during that time period).

In conclusion, it seems that either choice would be risky, and a this point I would be hesitant to buy or short either stock. However, because of MA's higher price (and therefore a higher probability to gain or lose more), then if you really want to buy one of these, go with Visa if you are a conservative investor, or Mastercard if you are willing to take a fairly large risk.

Thanks to cnbc.com for graphs and seekingalpha.com for data.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in V, MA over the next 72 hours.