This market is like a roller coaster right now. The dow is swinging 1000 points almost daily. Banks are failing or being bailed out by the government, 150 year old brokerage houses declaring bankruptcy. What’s an investor to do?

Well, there is some good news. You can put your money in companies that have cash on hand like Wells Fargo (WFC) whom I happen to work for and is one of the only financial institutions showing positive numbers through all this mess.

You can also look for stocks that have just gotten too cheap as the hedge funds insvested in them have sold off in massive amounts to free up capital. Stocks like Apple, Goldman Sachs (who is now becoming a deposit bank), Intel. These guys are all trading far below their real value, if you trade long. That is you hold positions for 6-18 months. If you are more comfortable day trading, it’s going to be harder to pick stocks like these and I suggest you do the following:

1. Buy the Pennystocking DVD sold by Timothy Sykes (you can also get a free copy of his book).
2. Learn to short sell. Volitile markets like this are perfect hunting grounds for shorting stocks (yes you can still short stocks)
3. Stay on top of your portfolio on a daily basis.

One of the best pieces of advice I have heard from any guru, be it Tim Sykes or Jim Cramer or even Warren Buffett is that if you don’t have time to spend investigating your investments and trades then you shouldn’t be managing your own money.

I also think you shouldn’t blindly pick some random ETF or Mutual Fund as you are just as likely to fail with that than anything. If you don’t want to manage your money you can do something very simple with it. Buy a 6 month CD and let it sit and appreciate. It’s not sexy, it’s not exciting but it is a guaranteed return on investment.

Me, I like playing with my money. Sure, it seems like gambling but the odds are so much better when you are educated about what you are doing.

You need to read some books. Any and all of the books at the top of this blog i highly recommend. Try starting with “How To Make Money In The Stock Market”.

You should also be willing to speculate with some of your money. Speculation is healthy and can lead to much bigger gains over shorter periods than investing long. I try not to make “stock picks” in the traditional sense. Someone even told me I was full of BS because my blog title had the word stock picks in it a while ago. I try to tell you what I do and what I would do in certain situations.

For example, I just bought shares of Crystallex International (KRY) a canadian gold mining company with assets in Venezuela that are yet to be exploited pending government regulatory measures. Should this mine open, the stock could skyrocket since gold as a commodity does very well in downturn economies. That being said, the stock is, in my opinion, too cheap. At just above $.51 cents you can afford to buy it without breaking your bank if it goes south. KRY has a tendency to trade around the dollar range so a quick double is possible if not incredibly likely. Momentum can easily carry KRY to $2 or higher and trending like that feeds of itself.

I half expect some pro pumper to be selling this one to unwary investors anytime now. That being said, I will tell you in full disclosure that I do own shares of KRY. I’m not trying to pump it here, you could lose money buying it but you could also make a lot if you trade it right.

I don’t like to recommend scalping a stock but this looks good to me.