Festival of Stocks, September 20, 2010

Welcome to the September 20, 2010 edition of the Festival of Stocks. The Festival of Stocks has been on vacation for the past few weeks, but it is back in action this week with an extended edition. The Festival of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to highlighting bloggers best posts on stock market related topics. Fat Pitch Financials is the actual birth place of this online weekly event, so it is always a special occasion when I get the chance to host this roving event.

If you aren’t already familiar with my blog, Fat Pitch Financials, it is a value investing blog with a focus on wide moat companies selling at substantial discounts and Benjamin Graham style workouts. I encourage you to subscribe for free to my blog feed to keep up with my latest postings.

You should also check my Fat Pitch Financials Contributor’s Corner while you are here. It is my premium members only community dedicated to unique arbitrage and special situation opportunities.

Now that you are familiar with Fat Pitch Financials, let’s take a look at this week’s Festival of Stock participants. Here are this week’s entries:

Dividends4Life presents Coca-Cola Company (KO) Dividend Stock Analysis posted at Dividends Value, saying, “The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest soft drink company. It engages in the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates, fruit juices and syrups worldwide. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.”

Mike Piper presents Do You Have an Investment Backup Plan? posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “What’s your plan in case your investments don’t perform as well as you’d hoped?”

Steve Alexander presents Medical Diagnostic Laboratories – Which is the Best Investment? posted at MagicDiligence – Optimizing Joel Greenblatts Value Stock Strategy, saying, “Medical diagnostic laboratories have solid fundamental growth drivers, and their stock prices are historically cheap due to what looks like short-term problems. Which of the “big 2″ labs – Quest and LabCorp – looks like the most attractive Magic Formula investment?”

Madison DuPaix presents OptionsXpress Review posted at My Dollar Plan, saying, “If you’re looking for a new online brokerage, check out this review of optionsXpress. They have some great trading tools!”

Arjun Rudra presents Taking Advantage Of The Growth In Emerging Markets With Luisa Moreno, PhD Of Lusight Research posted at Investing Thesis, saying, “If a global economic recovery, especially in the emerging markets, is what you believe in, then investing in resources and commodities is likely one way to take advantage of that growth. We sit down with a materials and metals analyst responsible for covering metal mining and steel companies across the Emerging Markets to gather insights and find ways to play the growth in the emerging markets.”

BWL presents 7 Deadly Stock Investing Mistakes posted at Christian Personal Finance, saying, “This article looks at 7 mistakes a lot of investors make and why you should avoid them…”

Dan presents New Alerian MLP ETF: High Yield, Beats the Market and No Messy Tax Forms posted at ETF Base, saying, “There’s now an ETF capturing the oft-cited “hidden gem” of investing – Master Limited Partnerships. With high yields and no tax forms to fuddle with, this may be 2010’s winning ETF.”

Ben presents Stock Analysis Ratios posted at Money Smart Life.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents How To Invest In Commodities as an Average Investor posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Some interesting thoughts on investing in commodities.”

PT presents Greed is Good posted at Prime Time Money.

Hussein Sumar presents How to Better Understand Roth IRA Conversions posted at Roth IRA, saying, “Roth IRAs and their sister retirement plans Roth 403b and Roth 401k offer oustanding retirement investing choices for American workers & savers. While most people have heard of these plans, they do not exactly know how to take advantage of them, or yet better understand them. This becomes even more difficult when an employee transitions from one job to another company while leaving behind his retirement plan with the old company, not knowing of the choices available.”

Sun presents How to Open Zecco Account [Broker Review] posted at The Sun’s Financial Diary.

RichF presents Speculating and Gambling on the Stock Market as the Dollar Sinks posted at LINKS: Best Money and Finance Links, saying, “Discussion of the current state of the stock market and Federal Reserve policies.”

Dividends4Life presents Medtronic Inc. (MDT) Dividend Stock Analysis posted at Dividends Value, saying, “Medtronic Inc. is a global medical device manufacturer has leadership positions in the pacemaker, defibrillator, orthopedic, diabetes management and other medical markets. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.”

The Financial Blogger presents A Few Tips To Protect Yourself Against Bonds Collapse posted at The Financial Blogger.

DGB presents Think About The Future: Who Can Increase Their Dividend? posted at The Dividend Guy Blog.

Madison DuPaix presents Are Municipal Bonds the Next Bubble? posted at My Dollar Plan, saying, “Food for thought on whether municipal bonds in your portfolio need a second look.”

Steven Kiel presents The First Portfolio Dedicated to Free Market Principles: The Hayek Fund posted at Arquitos Capital Management.

That concludes this edition of the Festival of Stocks. Be sure an leave comments as you visit each of the blogs that participated in this week’s Festival of Stocks. They’ll appreciate knowing folks are reading their articles.

If you are interested in volunteering to host a future edition of the Festival of Stocks, just contact me right away with the name of your site, blog URL, email address, and the date your prefer to host. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Festival of Stocks using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our Festival of Stocks index page for those of you interested in reviewing the archives.