This Week's 'Barron's' Roundup

Editor's note: Welcome to Stockpickr's "Barron's Roundup." Each weekend, James Altucher presents Stockpickr portfolios related to articles in the latest issue of Barron's.

Preferred Treatment: This Barron's article contends that some financial companies' adjustable-rate preferred shares look attractive for their secure dividends, and as a play on an outbreak of inflation. The article recommends preferred stock from companies such as Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) and HSBC Holdings(HCS Quote).

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Short Ideas: Barron's interviews Mark Roberts, founder of Off Wall Street Consulting Group. His firm provides investment ideas, most of which involve short-selling, to a small number of money managers and hedge funds. Some of the stocks he thinks could fall include Stryker(SYK Quote) and Psychiatric Solutions(PSYS Quote).

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Bullish and Bearish: Each week, Barron's publishes bullish and bearish stories on a variety of stocks. We present summaries of those stories in this portfolio. This week, there are bullish stories on Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote) and Millicom International Cellular(MICC Quote), plus a bearish take on Research In Motion(RIMM Quote).

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Latest Activist Purchases: Which companies are the top hedge funds chasing? This week's list includes names like LCA-Vision(LCAV Quote), Telephone & Data Systems(TDS Quote) and Maguire Properties(MPG Quote).

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Research Reports: The latest analyst research reports highlighted by Barron's, including reports this week on Bank of America(BAC Quote), Red Hat(RHT Quote) and St. Jude Medical(STJ Quote).

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Top Insider Purchases of the Week: Insider purchases are a lot more predictive than insider selling. Barron's lists companies where managers are buying stock, and we build a portfolio with those companies' stocks. There has been interesting activity in Goldman Sachs(GS Quote), Marvel Entertainment(MVL Quote), Och-Ziff Capital Management Group(OZM Quote) and Salix Pharmaceuticals(SLXP Quote).

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1 What would best describe your stance heading into the coming week of trading? Bullish Bearish Neutral 2 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move up in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities 3 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move down in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities View the results without voting