Weekend: The Best Free Advice You'll Ever Get

Welcome to the Wealth Daily Weekend Edition — our insights from the week in investing and links to our most-read Wealth Daily and sister publication articles.

My friend Arthur was never like the other kids.

Instead of chasing girls and working on his shot, his nose was buried in a racing form, his time spent hanging out at the track.

From age twelve and on, not even the stunning Sandy McNicholas could keep Art from the ponies… all of which struck us all as kind of weird — until we got a taste of how much money the kid was making hanging out with guys named Bruno and Dutch along the rail at Pimlico.

When he turned sixteen, Art bought his first car with cash while the rest of us were left begging to borrow keys from our parents. It was the sweetest candy apple red ’68 Camaro convertible you’ve ever seen…

Not bad for a guy that read the racing form the way some people read the Bible.

Today, he owns 25 race horses of his own and he’s known around the track as “The Edge”.

But it was never a matter of luck with Art; he worked like a maniac pouring over the hundreds of old racing forms that littered his room.

And he was the only guy I’ve ever met that would literally talk horses in his sleep. “Run! Tinpot… Run!” he’d sometimes holler in the middle of the night from across the hall.

It cracked us all up — especially since he never would tell us the story behind the horse. Whatever had happened to Tinpot that day was something that must have left a mark.

Not too long after, I caught exactly the same kind of fever. Only for me, it wasn’t with racehorses. It was with stocks.

Today, I actually work with a bunch of maniacs just like Art. Every day, we all stand along the rail of the markets, looking for our next big winner.

The good news for our readers is that we find them over and over again — no matter what the market is doing.

Here’s a look at a few of the calls our experts have made over the course of the last twelve months in the pages of our free e-letters.

In retrospect, these are the top seven free stock picks or sector calls of 2010 as they appeared in either Wealth Daily or Energy and Capital. (They are listed in no particular order.)

1. A spot-on gold call

Just before we rang in the New Year, Analyst Adam Sharp chimed in with a prescient call on gold. In an article entitled, “Why I’m Buying Gold Dips,” Adam explained, “There’s simply no way the Fed can stop propping up the market… Those betting on a quick and sustainable recovery will be disappointed.”

His recommendation was to buy gold on the dips. At the time, gold was $1080. Today it’s pushing $1400.

That’s a 30% gain in no time at all.

2. A radioactive moonshot

Publisher Brian Hicks handed this nugget out in February. Entitled “The Single Uranium Stock to Buy Right Now,” Brian put a BUY on Uranerz (URZ – AMEX) at $1.50/ share. Readers that jumped on that one could cash out today for $4.25 a share — a quick gain of 184%.

3. A string of winners

At the beginning of the year, Nick Hodge went long in a series of articles on energy efficiency that you can read here, here, and here. Over that three-week stretch, he talked about CREE, JCI, WPRT and CWST.

How did he do? CREE peaked in May for a 40% gain; JCI is carrying a 42% gain; WPRT has a 49% gain; and CWST has jumped 66% from the call.

4. Two ways to play the surge

In a story entitled “The Iraqi Oil Bull Market,” I gave readers T-3 Energy Services Inc. (NASDAQ: TTES) and Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT). Since then, TTES is up 80% in eight months on a takeover bid and WFT is up 43%.

5. Not so rare

In an article entitled “5 Rare Earth Stocks to Hedge Against Chinese Control,” Jeff Siegel named these five stocks:

• Avalon Rare Metals, Inc. (TSX: AVL) – up 158%
• Rare Earth Metals (TSX- V:RA) – up 58%
• Great Western Minerals Group (TSX-V: GWG) – up 185%
• Commerce Resources Corp. (TSX- V:CCE) – 157%
• Hudson Resources, Inc. (TSX-V: HUD) – 112.5%

Jeff also mentioned a private company named Molycorp. Since its IPO, Molycorp is up 233%.

6. Get your GOOG on

Adam Sharp made the bullish case for Google in July. In his piece “4 Reasons to Own Google,” Adam put a BUY on GOOG, citing: “A pristine balance sheet, impressive growth, great technology, and a reasonable valuation.”

Since the summer, GOOG is up 41%. Not bad for seven months…

7. Time to crack a cold one

For the sake of brevity alone, I’ll end with this one with a cold beer… even though I could probably stretch this list to well over 40 stock picks.

In “On Tap: Beer Stocks,” I recommended readers take a long, hard swallow of Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM), maker of Sam Adams.

Since then, SAM has gotten kind of frothy, topping out at $100.93 a share. That makes for a 115% gain in less than a year.

Not bad for a free Internet newsletter.

You can imagine what the paid subscriptions can deliver…

As for my old pal Arthur, he and I are driving to up Pittsburgh to catch the old ball game this weekend after a quick pit stop at the Charles Town Races.

That Camaro of his still runs like a top.

For more great investment ideas, check out the week’s top-read Wealth Daily and Energy & Capital articles below.

Your bargain-hunting analyst,

Steve Christ
Editor, Wealth Daily

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The Fed Blows a Cupcake Bubble: Lessons from the Donut Bubble of ’03
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The Real Reason for the BP Blowout: Blame Peak Oil
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Junior Gold Stocks to Shine in 2011: The Year of Junior Mining Stocks
Analyst Greg McCoach discusses investing in junior mining stocks in 2011.

How to Prepare for a Post-Peak World – Part I: Here’s Your First Food Security Warning
Editor Jeff Siegel posts the first part of his latest series: “How to Prepare for a Post-Peak World.”

Six Stocks for the Next Ten Years: What to Buy for Your Kids’ College
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Canada Flips China the Loon: Preparing for an Oil Sands Showdown
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Preparing for Energy Battle: America, Meet Energy Crisis
Editor Nick Hodge discusses recent energy events that serve as writing on the wall.

Exploring Yukon Gold Stocks: One Junior Yukon Gold Stock, Two Ways to Pull in Senior Profits
Analyst Luke Burgess discusses investing in Yukon gold stocks featuring Radius Gold (TSX-V: RDU).

Peak Oil is Past Tense: Exxon, Shell, and Aramco Admit the Peak is Real
Editor Nick Hodge offers Peak Oil admissions from Exxon, Shell and Aramco — and divulges the best way to profit in a world of $150 oil.