Random Thoughts & Readings

• John Dorfman provides a top 10 list of places to find stock-picking ideas


• BCA Research believes positive things are in store for the non-discretionary household products sector


• Is the United States a debtor waiting to go bust or a huge demand engine powering the global economy?


• Tobin Smith looks for market catalysts


• Want a good real-estate short?


• We watched Sideways last night on DVD. It was a good film (I liked it more than my wife). But, it left me wondering if there were any pure plays on growth of wine tasting. Any ideas? Let me know!


• Jeffrey Saut makes his call for the week


• "This week is options expiration week. Tuesdays and Thursdays of these weeks tend to be the strongest, while Wednesdays tend to be the weakest. As I stress every month, though, the most consistent bias of all is for weakness the day after expiration." - Jason Goepfert at Sentimentrader


• No one can buy 100 stocks, but you can use Zack's list as a start point


• The mismeasure of TV


• Stocks between $21 & $40 where the odds favor near-term gains


• The best-kept secret on Wall Street is corporate dividend reinvestment programs or DRIPs


• With the market's latest grind, we're no longer in oversold territory


• Here are some examples of hilariously bad behavior interviewers report as actually happening during interviews with potential job candidates


• Thompson believes the most likely scenario is that oil prices will come down dramatically


• Drug prices outstrip inflation?


• Bill Fleckenstein sees gold as the beneficiary of an inevitable economic crisis of confidence


• CXO finds that technical analysis can be significantly profitable when applied to relatively immature stock indices (NASDAQ Composite and Russell 2000), but not when applied to mature stock indices (DJIA and S&P 500)


• How many buy signs make a bottom?


• The booming market for armored cars


• Real estate agents flood a hot market


• Those who seek to find trouble rarely miss


• Whitney Tilson shares a few of his 50-cent dollar stock picks with Wall Street Week


• Trading tip: if you're losing, don't continue until you know why. Every trader knows when they're not doing their best, but the key is to adjust when you acknowledge it. Try to develop the ability to stop what you're doing, back up and re-evaluate before proceeding forward


• Falling fortunes of the wage earner


• The best time to buy gas is before lunchtime?


• When you are right no one remembers; when you are wrong no one forgets


• Have any $2 dollar bills laying around?


• Bankruptcy will be a tougher road, but few options exist


• If you're bored, you can always play with your change


• I performed poorly in Fortune's corner office quiz


• Trade-Ideas provides a handy stock screen which looks for stocks that have went down at least six consecutive trading days


• The cold war begins anew?


• No more free trades!


• "The answers to three questions will determine your success or failure. (1) Can people trust you to do your best? (2) Are you committed to the task at hand? (3) Do you care about other people and show it? If the answers to all these questions are yes, there is no way you can fail." - Lou Holtz