There were over 40 submissions and I arbitrarily picked 23 as the limit. I am quite impressed with the variety in the topics. I am mostly value focused so it was interesting to read some articles that I probably would never come across in my RSS reader normally.

So here they are the 23 selections for Feb. 1st 2010 edition of the “Festival of Stocks”:

Brokers

Options Express – Online Brokerage Review at DoughRoller
A review of Options Express an online discount brokerage
Stocks:

Currency

Think your lek can kick my colón? Get riyal. at Control Your Cash
A post on currency trading and what it means to bet on one currency against another.
Stocks:

Debt

Lending Club Risks and Costs at Index Investing: The Oblivious Investor
A comparison of Lending Club notes to a simple high-yield bond ETF. (Doesn’t exactly make Lending Club look great.)
Stocks:

Dividends

Realty Income – Dividen Stock Analysis at Dividend Growth Investor
Analysis of Realty Income, a stock that pays a monthly dividend.
Stocks: O

Raven Industries Inc. (RAVN) Dividend Stock Analysis at Dividends Value
Raven Industries Inc. manufacturer provides electronic precision-agriculture products, reinforced plastic sheeting, electronics manufacturing services, specialty aeronautics, and sewn products. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.
Stocks: RAVN

5 MAGIC FORMULA STOCKS FOR A LONG-TERM DIVIDEND INVESTOR at MagicDiligence.com
5 dividend stocks found using Joel Greenblatt’s Magic Formula
Stocks: RAI,LLY,HI,LO,UNTD

MFI STOCK REVIEW: REYNOLDS AMERICAN INC (RAI) at MagicDiligence.com
Reynolds American is a maker of popular cigarette brands like Camel and snuff brands such as Kodiak. The investment’s main attraction is a big, stable 7% dividend yield, but is this enough over a one year target holding period?
Stocks: RAI

S&P500 Dividend Aristocrats at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

A quick summary of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

Stocks:

ETF

Emerging Markets Stock ETF (VWO) at Best Mutual Funds Now
The Emerging Markets Stock ETF or VWO has investments in the emerging large-cap markets
Stocks: VWO

Wildcatters Exploration & Production ETF at ETF Base
Review and background on a newly launched Wildcatter Exploration and Production ETF – expect wild volatility and huge gains if gas/oil move upward.
Stocks: WCAT

Darwin’s Inverse Leveraged Short ETF Strategy – Incredible Results Outlined at Darwin’s Finance
This post covers a strategy where you short two opposing leveraged ETFs.
Stocks: ERX,ERY,FAS,FAZ,GLL,UGL

Time For A Real Estate ETF? at ETFdb
An overview of REIT ETFs
Stocks: VNQ,IYR,ICF,RWR,FTY,FRI,IFNA

The Gold ETF Situation at Personal Finance Analyst
Description of the Gold ETF and what the current status of Gold is today.
Stocks: GLD

M&A

Kraft to Take Over Cadbury – A Sweet Deal? at American Consumer News
An investigation into Krafts takeover of Cadbury.
Stocks: KFT,CBY

Mutual Funds

Vanguard Review at Foreigner’s Finances
A review of the mutual fund company. Included in the review is information on fees, site design, the company, and what type ofinvestor will work best with Vanguard.
Stocks:

Options

Options Strategy #2: Protective Put at The Financial Blogger
Using puts to protect your positions.
Stocks:

Small Cap

Graphite India Ltd – Good Small Cap Stock for Long Term Holding at TIPBlog.in
A long term small cap idea, Graphite India Limited
Stocks: GRAPHITE

Strategy

New Trade: Long Google-GOOG/Short Baidu-BID at Intelligent Speculator
A paired trade with Google and Baidu
Stocks: GOOG,BID

Are You a Bear or a Bull? Or a BeaBu? at BeaBu.com

Stocks:

Charlie Munger is a wealth of knowledge and thought. As a lot of people say, he doesn’t talk very much but when he does listen up.

Disclosure: I own shares of WFC and BRK.B at the time of this writing.

The title “Compounding Life” is a reference to compound interest. I think the idea of compounding can be applied to everything in life; friendships, love etc… So while this blog will be investment focused it is but a small part of interest that ends up getting compounded into my life overall.  I am not really sure of how much interest the topics will be to my immediates friends but I guess we will find out.