Editor's Note: The following was posted in real time on our premium Buzz & Banter (click for a free trial). It's being shared here for the benefit of the Minyanville community. See also Ten Themes for 2009.  Treat this subject and slap it in the "for what it's worth" category but the Toddo Sleep-O-Meter Index is front and center after last night's inability to catch a wink. Old school Minyans know that this typically serves as a precursor for "something big" in the marketplace. Look at me I'm A.D.D.! I completely spaced on including "salary deflation for professional athletes" on ...

There's a ray of sunshine in all that doom and gloom.

This ETF is built on high-grade corporate bonds.

It's buying a lab coat -- the company, not the jacket.

You absolutely should be beating the market.

Filed under: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Pfizer (PFE), Coca-Cola (KO), McDonald's (MCD), International Business Machines (IBM), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Baxter Intl (BAX), Chevron Corp (CVX), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), General Mills (GIS), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Wells Fargo (WFC), Comfort Zone Investing

Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth and Sleep Well at Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

For a better investing year in 2009, think about championship basketball. Winners at every level have one thing in common: defense. It's defense that wins rings. And this year, in the stock market, defense will keep you alive. It will be the kind of year where making a little money makes you a winner. Think defensively until there are clear signs that the economy is improving.

First, keep your expectations low. No one knows when the current economic cycle will end and begin to heal. What we do know is that all indicators keep going lower: housing starts, employment, consumer spending, housing prices. While the market discounts good news well in advance (some 6 to 9 months ahead of the real numbers), there's no indication from any front that better days are ahead. We know the new administration will spend money to create jobs so more spending power will be in the economy. We know there will most likely be tax breaks for companies to encourage production and hiring. But none of that is in place. Investors have to wait and see how and if these develop and what effect they will have on the economy and on stocks. It might take all year. Or longer. If it does, the stock market won't be doing too much.

Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Six smart ideas for stocks in 2009

Comfort Zone Investing: Six smart ideas for stocks in 2009 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 27 Dec 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The accompanying table (click to enlarge) includes 39 companies in the ETF Innovators (ETFI) Emerging Diagnostics Index of U.S.-listed stocks with market caps of $10-$200M. The index includes diabetes care device makers such as DexCom (DXCM), personalized medicine lab service providers such as Clarient (CLRT), clinical diagnostic test developers such as OraSure (OSUR), diagnostic imaging service providers such as Virtual Radiologic (VRAD), diagnostic equipment makers such as Vision Sciences (VSCI), and genetic[More...]

Looking back through 2008, the Healthcare sector has hit some huge hurdles. Patent concerns and expirations were worries for all major firms, the Department of Justice hit Med Tech with fines, Big Pharma made thousands of job cuts, Managed Care got demolished with enrollment cuts, and investors struggled to find much, ...

Looking back through 2008, the Healthcare sector has hit some huge hurdles. Patent concerns and expirations were worries for all major firms, the Department of Justice hit Med Tech with fines, Big Pharma made thousands of job cuts, Managed Care got demolished with enrollment cuts, and investors struggled to find much, if any safety in the whole sector. Going forward, 2009 will be quite an interesting year in the markets and the ever-so struggling economy. More M&A activity and consolidation will not only be seen within the Financials sector, but will also spread across other sectors. We have seen this ramp up quite a bit in Due to lofty predictions by some analysts regarding unforeseen buyouts of large Biotech firms by Big Pharma, heated debates on the Street will be prevalent. Some names that have been thrown out are Merck buying Gilead and Pfizer purchasing Amgen. Although those are pretty big bets, nonetheless, it will[More...]

The accompanying table (click to enlarge) highlights the Top 40 Rated stocks (sorted alphabetically) in the ETF Innovators (ETFI) Emerging Bio-Pharma Index of biotech and pharmaceutical companies with market caps of $200M-$1.5B. The rating system factors in each company's number of innovative clinical pipeline + marketed products, market cap weighting, and historical stock price return. The Emerging Bio-Pharma Index has outpaced benchmark ETFs such as iShares Nasdaq[More...]

Companies featured in this segment: Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), Air Liquide (OTC:AIQUY), General Motors Corporation (NYSE:GM), Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America (NYSE:TM), Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE), Vale (NYSE:RIO), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP), Merck & Company (NYSE:MRK), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Xstrata (LSE:XTA), Grupo Mexico (OTC:GMBXF), Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX)

Companies featured in this segment: Steel Dynamics Incorporated (NASDAQ:STLD), CEL-SCI Corporation (AMEX:CVM), Vale (NYSE:RIO), Progress Energy (NYSE:PGN), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), DuPont (NYSE:DD), Cytec Industries Incorporated (NYSE:CYT), Lubrizol Corporation (NYSE:LZ)

Companies featured in this segment: Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE), Toshiba Corporation (OTC:TOSBF), Flour Corporation (NYSE:FLR), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), GMR Infrastructure Limited (BSE:532754), PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), New Gold Incorporated (AMEX:NGD), Thompson Creek Metals Company Incorporated (NYSE:TC), Teck Cominco Limited (NYSE:TCK), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)

Companies featured in this segment: Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR), Siemens (NYSE:SI) Westinghouse steam turbines and three General Electric (NYSE:GE), Alstom (EPA:ALO), CenterPoint Energy Incorporated (NYSE:CNP), Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR), American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP), MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD), Eli Lilly & Company (NYSE:LLY), Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO), Pfizer Incorporated (NYSE:PFE), Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE:CBI), Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT), GDF Suez SA (EPA:GSZ), Kansai Electric Power Corporation (TYO:9503), Kyushu Electric Power Corporation (TYO:9508), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), UBS Investment Bank (NYSE:UBS)

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