How do you guys pick these stocks (such as YGE)? It's not like you have a limited amount of them out there. There are tens of thousands. Are you using some kind of screener to narrow down your choices, then investigating further?

Fosters---check out CNBC, Forbes, fool.com, etc. You'll find a lot of tips on industries, mergers, newcomers, etc. Take it all in, do some homework, and make a decision. Read "Investors Business Daily" or WSJ and see what kind of info. you can come up with. A lot of stuff can be found by breaking down something.

For example... Exxon has oil, gas, etc. But... look beyond Exxon, Chevron, BP, etc. Look maybe at companies that are into exploration (finding new places to drill, building rigs, etc.) You'd stumble upon Bronco Drilling Co. (Ticker: BRNC) Just an example... but that is one way to stumble upon "hidden gems." Visa is going to have an IPO soon---Q1 or 2 2008...that could be huge if it is priced well. Keep an eye out for these as well (YGE was an IPO a few months ago. Hertz was an IPO a few months ago... (I purchased at $14.98/share, sold at 21.46/share). The information is out there, just have to know where to look.

jesus man you need to get out of the flying business. I'm jealous. I should've got a finance degree.

My one look at an IPO was Vonage...I'm sure you know how that looks right now. Luckily I didn't buy. That's why I'm always skeptical of IPO's.

Something I'm having difficulty doing is calculating the stock price of these companies. They just don't have any sort of track record to go off of. How in the world are you able to calculate these prices and *know* that they are undervalued and will go up? Or are you speculating that they will go up? How do you come up with the fundamentals? Their earnings are all over the place.

theres actual calculations that analysts use to determine if the stock is over/under valued. there are various ones and youll find them online or in an investments or finance textbook. but as with anything else, past performance is no guarantee of future success, and there are still too many unknowns.

and the extreme sensitivity of airlines to almost every economic fluctuation makes long term investing in an airline pretty aggravating. from a long term investment point of view Fedex looks good, but who can afford $105 a share? and holy crap look at google at $585 a share, it was 390 or so last year.

I bought a few options of AMR JAN 08 $25 calls last week for 1.20 and it's near 3. Xjt is a good buy and I'm waiting for a good entry point for XJT Jan 2009 $5 calls soon if i decide to take a little profit off AMR. Also everyone should try Vector Vest it's a great stock screener easy and invaluable to anyone who loves to get in the numbers of stocks and it's free to start.. I don't want to sound like an ass and brag but honestly I can't tell you how much I've made % wise in the last 2 years but it's a lot thanks to the Vector Vest stock screener with new buy and sells everyday. It's practically a guarantee if you search sectors correctly. I wish I started off with more at the begining but oh well it's been gravy until I have to pay taxes :(. GRS, USG, SBUX, GROW are my stock picks for a long term calls but I would wait a few days for a good entry on a profit taking day.

interesting advice coming from a guy named sham :)

Captchris is right on. I am almost constantly researching or reading something about the markets when I am on the road. I stumbled across YGE when I was searching for an alternative energy fund for my portfolio. Dug a little deeper and found that YGE is the largest vertically integrated solar cell producer in the worlds largest and growing energy market. Seemed like a good buy and the fundamentals were there. The rest is history. I guess the short answer is research research research. Yahoo Finance and Fool.com are great because there are a lot of discussion boards of people just talking about stocks and funds. There are lots of books out there worth looking at as well. Gives you something to do during those long sits.

Yeah... and back when GOOG came out as an IPO---everyone was saying it was WAYYYYY overpriced at $86/share, in fact I remember watching CNBC and this guy says... "Google is way overpriced at $86/share, it will never see $100" One of the things that Cramer points out in his books.... "What goes to $90 goes to $100" and I've found that to be true too.

Good luck guys.... happy trading :)

IPO's like anything are a gamble. You just have to research a little bit before you buy. Hertz--that was an easy one... Chipotle... are you kidding me, their burritos are amazing, plans for growth are amazing, and their margins are good---so that IPO came out at $44, I was in around $48 and out over $100.... great investment, a huge gamble, but looking at all of their information... they were planning major growth, and growing their market share.