This Week's 'Barron's' Roundup

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

Top Funds: This Barron's article ranks mutual fund companies by their 2008 performance. Top names include State Street(STT Quote), Northern Trust(NTRS Quote) and Waddell & Reed Financial(WDR Quote).

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REIT Buys: Barron's talks with Marty Cohen, co-chief executive officer at Cohen & Steers. Cohen is a real-estate veteran who sees opportunity in buying high-quality REITs at cheap prices. Some of the names he likes are Simon Property Group(SPG Quote) and Boston Properties(BXP Quote).

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"Speaking of Dividends": This Barron's column highlights the latest dividend increases, initiations and cutbacks. This week there's information on Dow Chemical(DOW Quote), Norfolk Southern(NSC Quote) and Praxair(PX Quote).

Update: In Tuesday afternoon trading, shares of Dow were recently trading at $11.56 (up 5.25% for the day; down 22.73% year-to-date).

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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 Hartford Financial(HIG Quote) and Verizon Communications(VZ Quote).

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Latest Activist Purchases: Which companies are the top hedge funds chasing? This week's list includes names like Amylin Pharmaceuticals(AMLN Quote), Otter Tail(OTTR Quote) and Cablevision Systems(CVC Quote).

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Research Reports: The latest analyst research highlighted by Barron's, including reports this week on American Express(AXP Quote), Texas Instruments(TXN Quote) and Rent-A-Center(RCII 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 BlackRock(BLK Quote), Goldman Sachs Group(GS Quote), Impax Laboratories(IPXL Quote) and MGIC Investment(MTG 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