Here are the top stories this week at Value Investing News:

1. Dividend Aristocrats are outperforming the markets in 2008
2. Berkshire Hathaway Historical Total Return Performance
3. Taking Stock in COST
4. Buying Stocks On The Rebound: Four To Consider
5. 9 Ways to Make Money
6. Value Investing Like Ben Graham
7. Three Notable Dividend Increases over the past week
8. 111th Festival of Stocks
9. Jim Cramer: Buy High / Sell Low?
10. Whitman Sampler Of Value Stocks
11. Value Kings on CNBC – Part 3
12. Value Kings on CNBC – Part 2
13. Value Kings – Where to Put Your Money – Part 1
14. What Would Warren Buffett Do?
15. The Panic of 2008

It was a tough week here and it’s been overwhelming to keep up with all the news in this volatile market. I haven’t had much time to write, but hopefully I’ll get caught up this weekend. I have quite a few things I’m hoping to share with you.

This week’s Festival of Stocks is at Dividend Growth Investor. There were 19 top notch entries that made the cut this week. Be sure to check them out. Once you are finished this week’s festival, you might be interested in checking out the archive of past editions of the Festival of Stocks.

This has been a very interesting week for value investors. Warren Buffett and Marty Whitman have been encouraging investors to take advantage of the value opportunities in this market. Here are the top value investing news stories this week you won’t want to miss:

1. Those With Sense of History May Find It’s Time to Invest
2. Should You Sell A Dividend Stock After A Dividend Cut?
3. Harris Steel: Value In Action
4. Wow! What A Week It Was
5. “Why This Is NOT the Great Depression”: A Reader Writes…
6. How Much Of Their Earnings Are Companies Paying Out?
7. Analysts Improving?
8. Attractively Valued Dividend Stocks in the buy zone
9. Riding It Out in Cash-Rich Tech
10. Stock Analysis: Manulife Financial Corp (MFC)
11. Land Ho!
12. Buy American. I Am.
13. Nassim Nicholas Taleb Vents…
14. J&J, Safe, Solid, & Consistent

Did you like these articles? Help contribute links to the best value investing stories by joining Value Investing News today for free.

As some of you might know, I’ve been playing the Constellation Energy Group (CEG) merger arbitrage opportunity. Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican has offered to buy CEG shares for $26.50. The stock has bounced down as low as $15 and as high as $28.62.

I sold my original position in CEG, but last Friday I couldn’t resist buying CEG at $22.30. After I bought the position, I decided to put a good-until-canceled (GTC) limit order in at $26.30. How did I come up with $26.30? I figured it was less greedy than my last limit order sale of CEG at $26.40.

This morning, the market roared back to life. Constellation shares jumped up to $26.26 while I was away from a computer. By just 4 cents, I missed profiting from CEG again in a very short period of time. Was it worth holding out for 4 more cents given the risk of having to wait a while for MidAmerican to close the deal, which is still quite a ways off? What limit price should I have placed? What criteria do you use to determine what price to sell a merger arbitrage opportunity early?

Disclosure: I own shares of CEG. No other shares mentioned in this article are owned at the time of this was posted.

This week’s edition of the Festival of Stocks is hosted by College Analysts.  This edition is jam packed with articles. Apparently, last week’s market tumble didn’t slow these bloggers down.

I’m happy to see that James Cullen included my post on Bill Ackman’s presentation at the Value Investing Congress. The Festival also included another article on the Wachovia-Wells Fargo merger by American Consumer News.

Next week’s Festival of Stocks will be at the Dividend Growth Investor. We are looking for a host for the November 3rd edition of the Festival of Stocks and dates after that. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact me.

Disclosure: I own shares of Wells Fargo (WFC).

Last week the Value Investing Congress was hosted in New York and the it was also the worst week for the S&P 500 ever. The financial crisis continues on and I think even the most seasoned market veterans are feeling the stress. Try to spend the weekend relaxing and gathering your wits. Here are the top stories of the week from Value Investing News to get your bearings:

1. Is It Time To Panic?
2. B of A Gets The Scissors Out
3. Home Depot vs Lowe’s: Return on Equity
4. Carl Icahn Comments on the Financial Crisis
5. Live from Value Investing Congress
6. How Good Are Analyst Predictions
7. Diageo, Happy Hour On The Cheap
8. United Technologies Corp (UTX) Boosts Dividend 20% and Other Increases
9. Top 20 one day percent decreases in Dow Jones
10. Jeff Matthews on GE at Value Investing Congress
11. Why Dividends are Important
12. Value Investing and Time Arbitrage by Boykin Curry
13. Value Investing Congress: EchoStar, Fairfax Financial, Berkshire Hathaway

One of the highlights of this year’s Value Investing Congress was Bill Ackman’s presentation on Monday, October 6, 2008. The focus of his presentation was on his recent long position in Wachovia (WB).

If I got my facts straight, Ackman bought into Wachovia around Monday, September 29, 2008. He then sold half of his position on the announcement of the deal with Wells Fargo (WFC). As of this past Monday, Ackman was still holding on to a huge position in Wachovia.

Ackman notes that the only information that Wachovia has provided on the Citigroup deal was a rushed press release filed on September 29^th with a word misspelled in the title. It is amazing how frantic things have become, that even important press releases have uncorrected typos in their titles.

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Earlier today I read that talks between Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) were breaking down over the acquisition of Wachovia (WB) bank. It looks like they completely fell apart tonight according to this AP report.

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Jeff Matthews is with Ram Partners. Matthews just published his book today. Two years ago the annual meeting he took 30 pages of notes. This past May he took his computer and took notes. Had great words to say about Lee Cooperman. He bought Lynne Broadcasting for a $1. Thinks it was bought by AT&T for $131 a share. The next time he talked to Lee he talked about a complete dog. Lee also testified as being long Tyco and testified against it.

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Aaron Edelheit of Sabre Value Management presents “Small Cap Diamonds in a Rough Market.” Sabre is generating 19% annualized returns.

How has the small cap value sector outperform so long? Edelheit argues this is because there are periods of illiquidity and volatility. Edelheit focuses on insider buying, spin-offs and restructuring.

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