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 the biggest investment bubble today is in U.S. Treasuries. It says prices on government debt are set to go lower but adds there's opportunity in the rest of the bond market. The article recommends shorting Treasuries with the Ultrashort Lehman 20+Year Treasury Proshares(TBT Quote) and getting long the iShares iBoxx $ High-Yield(HYG Quote) or convertible securities on stocks such as Ford Motor(F Quote) and Citigroup(C Quote).

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Bottom Caller: Barron's interviews Laszlo Birinyi, founder and president of Birinyi Associates. His firm, located in Westport, Conn., manages around $250 million in assets. Birinyi recently published a note saying the S&P 500 would bottom at 750. Some of the stocks he likes include General Electric(GE Quote) and Amazon.com(AMZN Quote).

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Top-Down Manager: Barron's talks with Jerry Jordan, portfolio manager of the Jordan Opportunity Fund (JORDX). Jordan uses a "top-down" investment approach when selecting stocks. Some of the names he likes include Biogen Idec(BIIB Quote) and Diamond Offshore Drilling(DO 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 Questar(STR Quote), Infosys Technologies(INFY Quote) and ICICI Bank(IBN Quote).

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Latest Activist Purchases: Which companies are the top hedge funds chasing? This week's list includes names like Mentor(MNT Quote), MathStar(MATH Quote) and Media General(MEG Quote).

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Research Reports: The latest analyst research highlighted by Barron's, including reports this week on Ceradyne(CRDN Quote), Axsys Technologies(AXYS Quote) and Intersil(ISIL 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 Salesforce.com(CRM Quote), Helicos Biosciences(HLCS Quote), Mosys(MOSY Quote) and CVS Caremark(CVS 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