Today’s stock pitch is for Akamai, the leading global service provider for accelerating content and applications online (such as streaming video). After growing their profits by a stunning 73% in the third-quarter earnings report, you may wondering whether Akamai (NYSE: AKAM) is going to continue their unbelievable growth or fall to their main competitor Limelight Networks (NYSE: LLNW). Answer? They are both of good value. Limelight is undervalued right now at $12.80 a share, while Akamai certainly is better poised to control the content-delivery industry with its superior client base (YouTube, MTV, Apple, XM, etc.).

Why own Akamai you ask? In a press release today (October 30th, 2007), Akamai introduced the industry’s first and only PCI-compliant site acceleration service. “PCI-compliant site and transaction acceleration will provide companies conducting ecommerce online with the assurance that sensitive credit card information is transmitted over a platform that is PCI-compliant (Source: Akamai Technologies, Inc.).” This is just icing on the cake, as I would have recommended the stock with the same authority before this news. It just goes to show how well this company is adapting to change, staying ahead of the curve. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Thursday night and time for this weeks sports picks! We are halfway through the NFL schedule and also have many interesting NCAA Football games in the balance. Will Ohio State stay number one? Will the Rams pick up a win? And how about the Colorado Rockies?!

Let’s start it off in the NFL. Interesting match-ups, lets have a look. Cleveland Browns at St. Louis Rams should turn out to be the Rams first win of the season. The Browns may not be as bad as we thought they were when the season started, but the Rams have been so heavily denied that you gotta think they will break out soon; this is that week. The Detroit Lions could have some trouble with the staunch Chicago Bears defense on the road, but I see them rolling through this. Chicago could cause turnover problems, but I think they will miss opportunities as the Lions turn up the heat. The Indianapolis Colts shouldn’t have much trouble at all eating the Carolina Panthers alive this week on the road. With the first international game of the season, I see the New York Giants dominating the 0-7 Miami Dolphins on both ends of the field in London, rolling to a healthy 6-2. The 7.5 favorite Tennessee Titans should have plenty of trouble with the Oakland Raiders at home this week. Look for Oakland to at least cover the spread on this one. The Philadelphia Eagles get a much needed win over the Minnesota Vikings on the road this week. McNabb steps it up in the pocket and makes up for the Adrian Peterson factor. The Pittsburgh Steelers are only favored by 4 against the Cincinnati Bengals? You gotta be kidding me. Steelers blow this spread away three-fold. NY Jets get their second win of the season at home against the Buffalo Bills when Lee Evans cannot produce a second-straight stellar performance and L. Coles takes over. No betting line yet on the Houston Texans v. San Diego Chargers or the Jacksonville Jaguars v. Tampa Bay Buccaneers games. Any while the Chargers wrap up the Texans with a classic L.T. show, the Bucs will stun Jaguar fans Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s stock pitch is for NVidia, a tech stock that has totally taken off in the past year. Nvidia (NYSE: NVDA) is a GPU (graphics processing unit) company that has been producing high-end graphics cards for years. They also offer solutions for media and communications processors (MCPs), handheld GPUs, and consumer electronics. After being in constant competition with AMD, 3dFX and STMicroelectronics, NVidia has effectively beaten its competitors and is beginning to see most of the workload in the graphics industry. Recent trends in increasing processing capabilities has decreased the demand for so-called “onboard” graphics cards, typically made by Intel, while increasing the demand for chips that can handle more. This is where NVidia comes in.

NVidia is currently seen as overvalued in the market, yet their share price continues to trend upwards. Regardless, we are going to go ahead and consider this company for our stock watch list instead of investing immediately, we want to wait for a more attractive margin of safety. So why is NVidia so attractive to me? Primarily, it has been their outstanding ability to grow capital increasingly year after year. According to market research firm, Jon Peddie Research, “NVDA’s share of the graphics market climbed to 32.6% in the second calendar quarter of 2007.” This is up from a 19.7% gain just one year earlier. Read the rest of this entry »

Jonathan E. of Omaha, NE asks: “How do I know if I will actually be paid or not? How can I tell if a website that promises money is legitimate?”

Well Jon, this is perhaps the most popular question among new-comers to the GPT industry. If you have just heard about this prospect of completing short offers for money, with the potential to gain hundreds (and even thousands) of dollars, you are probably a non-believer. How can a website honestly be trusted with paying you to fill out your name and address on a few forms? Well truth be told, some cannot. However, most of these self-proclaimed GPT (get-paid-to) sites have great reputations and customer service to ensure you get your payments in full.

First things first, how can GPT websites actually give you money for seemingly unrelated offers? What is basically happening here is that the managers of these websites search around the web for different companies willing to pay for new members. Read the rest of this entry »

Bodog, I love it. This is the sportsbook for me ladies and gentlemen. Bodog specializes in delivering sports wagering and casino gambling to mediocre sports nuts like myself, and they offer the lowest fees in the industry. Compared to the others, I found that Bodog’s once-a-month free of charge withdrawal simply cannot be beaten. Most other places hit you with tremendous fees that you do not even consider until you win big. Believe me, it hurts. That’s why I’m here doing the work for you.

Bodog pays. The website is simple to use and clean to the touch. And although they recently had “domain disputes,” causing them to change their location from the simple Bodog.com to BodogLife.com, I still believe that nothing is wrong here… as scary as things like that usually are. The reason? A reassuring CEO. The man issued a report literally days after it happened reassuring all of the players that everything was okay and explaining the situation at hand. This is the kind of company I can get used to. They are on my side. Read the rest of this entry »