Money Morning's "Investor's Playbook": 68 Opportunities for Profit Over the Next 12 Months

By Mike Caggeso
Associate Editor

As the old Wall Street adage tells us: "The trend is your friend."

There's one problem with that. By the time you recognize the trend and jump in, it's halfway played out - and you miss out on the maximum-possible gains.

That's why the best investors are one step ahead of the curve - and two steps ahead of Wall Street.

That's where Money Morning enters the picture. In this special investment research book, "The Essential Investor's Playbook for the Next 12 Months," our team of worldwide investing experts from The Money Map Report and Money Morning reviewed the key forces at work in the global markets today.

From that, we identified 10 major forces - from commodities to sovereign wealth funds to biotech - that are poised to storm the world's capital markets, focused on those that investors are most likely to face in the next year and ferreted out the 68 best investment recommendations.


The Essential Investor's Playbook

"The Essential Investor's Playbook" explores:

  • Emerging economies: China, India and Latin America
  • Global finance: sovereign wealth funds, the falling dollar, bonds and mergers and acquisitions
  • Energy: oil, alternative energy, uranium
  • Special Investments: gold, agricultural commodities, biotech, U.S. housing 

In addition to each chapter's in-depth research, the book also features a detailed chart that identifies the catalysts that launch billion-dollar trends, placing investors in the best position for maximum profits.

What You Won't Read Anywhere Else

"Most investors still don't understand how critical international growth is to the economy, and as a result they are dramatically underweighted when it comes to international holdings," said Keith Fitz-Gerald, investment director of both Money Morning and The Money Map Report.  "It used to be that 10% to 15% [of the portfolio] was appropriate. That was good in the last century. What we're talking about now is building the stocks that will lead the way next century."

And now that U.S. markets are weighted down by the "subprime slime" of a devastated housing market, and a slow moving Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, a long-term view is the best view to take.

"With uncertainty comes opportunity. Change creates opportunity," says William Patalon III, executive editor of Money Map Report and Money Morning. "So for an investor, that means that some of the very best profit plays you'll find are during periods when your initial reaction is to stay on the sidelines where it's supposedly safe. Investors who do that will find that there are two kinds of losses they can suffer: The losses from making a bad investment, and the loss - of foregone profits - from making no investment at all." 

Stock Picks Specific to Current Market Conditions…

The dollar has nosedived, oil and food prices are sky-high, and on top of that, the U.S. stock market can't seem to shake free of the dour investor sentiment that the subprime crisis and high energy costs are bringing from a simmer to an outright boil.

That's precisely why investors should be proactive and follow the global money flows, asking such key questions as: Who's profiting from this upswing in oil? Which economies are soaring? What countries export the most valuable commodities?

By asking these questions, "The Essential Investor's Playbook" puts you on the investment offensive, identifying dozens of specific profit plays instead of scaring you into stuffing your savings away in your sock drawer.

"Some of our best thinking went into developing investment ideas that we feel will allow investors to profit from China without having to embrace the full risk of investing in China," Patalon said. "Companies such as MGM Mirage (MGM), The Boeing Co. (BA), Yum Brands Inc. (YUM), PepsiCo. Inc. (PEP) and ABB Ltd. (ABB) are companies that are extremely well positioned to capitalize on the global trends we've spoken of here, and that are also poised to reap major rewards from China's emergence as a new economic superpower."

And that's only the beginning.

The game plan is simple: Using the 68 investment recommendations in "The Essential Investor's Playbook," investors can ride the entire wave of profits, tripling the returns most investors will see, instead of getting splashed by it.

"Here's what it comes down to: Investors need to make a critical decision," Fitz-Gerald said. "Do they want to participate in international growth or do they want to stand on the sidelines as the train leaves the stations without them?"