Gene Marcial is a veteran financial journalist who easily beats the averages in his weekly column of stock market picks. Even for someone who does not regularly read Business Week it is well worth the effort to make a regular habit of Inside Wall Street, which will cover on average three stocks per week.Those familiar with recent current events might recall just how influential the Inside Wall Street column is.

Back in 2006 two employees at the Business Week printing plant in Wisconsin were charged with smuggling out advance copies of Business Week. The two were paid to smuggle the advance issues out by two employees of Goldman Sachs, Eugene Plotkin and David Pajcin, who used pre-publication information from the Inside Wall Street column to trade stocks.

Needless to say, the Goldman traders were charged with insider trading. Plotkin and Pajcin even had recruited the two men at the printing press to get jobs there for the purpose of smuggling out pre-publication copies and/or disclosing the names of the stocks mentioned in Inside Wall Street. One of the Business Week printing press smugglers was only 20 when arrested, and faced 15 years in prison. GS trader Euegen Plotkin was only 26 when he was arrested, and faced up to 70 years in prison.And in the most bizarre twist in this Inside Wall Street insider trading case - the SEC filed civil insider trading charges against Pajcin’s Aunt Sonya, a former underwear factory worker in Croatia, who was also trading on the smuggled info.

Plotkin and Pajcin traded about 20 different stocks on trading days prior to Inside Wall Street’s publication, and made approximately $340,000 on the trades. This scheme and its financial aftermath point to the expected rise a stock makes following a favorable mention in Inside wall Street.

And in case anyone is wondering at this point, two of the stocks profiled in the April 7th column of Inside Wall Street are: BMY - Bristol-Myers looks like a take-over target, and LEH - Lehman Brothers tanked following the Bear Stern debacle and the feeling is that those Lehman fears may be overstated. Goldman has a 12 month price target now of 58 a share.If you wish to know what the third stock is that is mentioned this week you will have to read Inside wall Street to find out!

by Eileen The Pirate

This week-end I finally got around to reading the February/March issue of Traders Monthly magazine. What caught my eye in this issue was the fourth annual Trades of the Year - kind of like the Academy Awards for active traders/investors.

The Trade of the Year was John Paulson shorting the subprime market silly, shorting CDOs and eventually generating 3 billion in revenue. John Paulson’s Credit Opportunities LP Fund returned 590% in 2007.

For Long Equity Trade of the Year: Atticus Capital. Three years ago Atticus Capital correctly predicted a copper supply shortfall, and to play it bought a 29 million dollar stake in Phelps Dodge. FCX later acquired Phelps Dodge, Atticus Capital’s Phelps Dodge stake became a position in FCX, and FCX climbed higher throughout 2007 as demand for copper surged. At the end of 2007 Atticus’s original 29 million position had blossomed into a 3.1 billion dollar position in FCX, scoring Atticus a 100 bagger.

I don’t even remember which Hollywood actors won the Academy Awards in 2007. The 2007 trades of the year seem far more interesting. And I have only briefly summarized two of them.

And in conclusion, the lesson from John Paulson: “When you really believe in a trade, go hard or go home.”

There’s little doubt that for the forseeable future we’ll be making most of our money in internationals and commodities in some form. My personal portfolio which has increased in value between 28% and 46% annually since 2003 is nearly 2/3rds internationals and commodities in the form of hard commodities or oil/energy/metals stocks, and gold miners.

You need to have the first three at a minimum, in my opinion. That’s less than $40 total as you will pay no sales tax and get free shipping. Order as many as you can afford as they are all considered top notch reads and you WILL pay for them with better investments. If you’re really tight, skip #2 and get #1 and #3. #2 Adventure Capitalist is both a travelogue, a commodity and international stock investment guide, and a read that will give you the midset you need to find the great deals. #2 Hot Commodities is more investment specific and a little more timely. Cramer’s #1 Real Money is a must own as you’ll refer to it time and time again.

I’ve ranked the first few in my order of choice. Select the others based on your interests.