The Motley Fool's CAPS investing service is one of the newest additions to the investing community at Fool.com, and it's another great way for investors to work together to beat the market. One of the features in CAPS allows users to set up a blog to talk about their picks, investing strategy, market view, or favorite baseball team (if they so desire).
I've scoured through the CAPS blog universe to bring you a generous helping of the top blog posts of the past week.
Best alternative energy stocks
It seems like everyone likes alternative energy stocks, right? How about solar power? Oh yeah, solar power is huge! Whether we're talking about Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL ) , whose stock price has more than doubled since its December IPO, or First Solar, which has a stock chart that looks positively parabolic, investors seem to love solar's potential. But CAPS player rudolphsteiner hasn't been won over by the solar craze:
Everyone is gaga over solar. Why is that? Because it's sexy - it glitters like Andy Gibb's disco suit, it produces FREE ENERGY (after you invest billions of dollars, scarce materials and energy to make the solar cells), it may involve Nanotechnology (guaranteed to add several 100's to your P/E), and Jim Cramer said so.
In a recent blog post, this CAPS player shares the one solar name he's at least somewhat interested in, as well as some other alternative-energy names he finds more interesting.
Defensive stocks
Worried about the potential that our current bull market could be getting a little long in the tooth? In a recent posting, prolific CAPS blogger weiwentg reviews a video from Morningstar and discusses a few of Morningstar's defensive picks. Among the stocks he looks at are Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG ) and Inside Value pick Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) .
Rating 1-star stocks
CAPS player majakblue has taken a hard look at a bunch of the stocks on CAPS that have been given a one-star rating (the lowest) and has not only found some interesting stocks amongst the rubble, but has also learned a lot about investing. She has noted that though there are certainly a good deal of lousy companies among the one-stars, there are also some that may just be "way under the radar." CAPS' collection of one-star stocks includes the likes of Stock Advisor selection Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN ) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM ) .
Don't count on cheap housing
In a recent blog post, EScroogeJr gives his take on the housing market and respectfully disagrees with fellow Fool Seth Jayson's conclusions. In his post, EScroogeJr gives his take on what is happening in the housing market and what to expect as the "market crash" (which he is skeptical of) continues. He also outlines why the falling median housing prices may not mean what they seem to, and suggests that the median home price may simply be a bad way of tracking home prices.
Homebuilders
Speaking of the real estate market, CAPS player leohaas dodges the question of housing prices, but gives a take on why the homebuilders will continue to have a tough road ahead. The thoughts are timely, given that we're right in the middle of second-quarter earnings reports from the likes of KB Home (NYSE: KBH ) and Lennar. And given the ugly quarter Lennar reported, it certainly doesn't look like the pain for homebuilders has started letting up quite yet.
Portnoy's Complaint
Call me a sucker for drama, but I think metoo105 brings readers an introduction to an interesting battle going on at stem cell company Cryo-Cell. While the $27 million company does not appear to me to be investment material, reading through some of the recent press releases is pretty darn entertaining nonetheless.
Samuel Adams video pitch
Beer, TV, and stocks are a match made in heaven. What, you don't agree? Blasphemy! Well, agree or not, the new 27-second video pitch for brewer Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM ) , the maker of Samuel Adams, on TMFCramerica's blog is well worth a view.
And now it's your turn -- get off the sidelines, join CAPS, and start up your own CAPS blog to share your own knowledge and insights with the rest of the CAPS universe.
More CAPS Foolishness:
Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer shares some thoughts of his own on his CAPS blog. He does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. The Fool's disclosure policy does not have its own CAPS blog, but if it did, it would blow your mind.
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