This Week's 'Barron's' Roundup

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

Africa Stock Plays: This Barron's article says investors will lose a huge opportunity if they avoid fast-growing Africa. Among the stocks mentioned are iShares MSCI South Africa ETF(EZA) and Morgan Stanley Frontier Emerging Markets Fund(FFD).

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Short-Seller: Barron's talks with Mark Roberts, founder of Cambridge, Mass.-based Off Wall Street Consulting Group, a company that provides short-sale research to the hedge fund industry. The group annually provides institutions with 25 investment ideas. Among the stocks mentioned are Copart(CPRT), Strayer Education(STRA) and Advanced Micro Devices(AMD).

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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 Bank of America(BAC) and Ford Motor(F).

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> > Bull or Bear? Vote in Our Poll

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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 Newmont Mining(NEM), Norfolk Southern(NSC) and TAL International Group(TAL).

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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 Piper Jaffray(PJC), BlackRock(BLK), H&R Block(HRB) and American Superconductor(AMSC).

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Research Reports: The latest analyst research highlighted by Barron's, including reports this week on Range Resources(RRC), CBOE Holdings(CBOE) and SAP AG(SAP).

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Latest Activist Purchases: Which companies are the top hedge funds chasing? This week's list includes names like CME Group(CME), Family Dollar Stores(FDO) and ADC Telecommunications(ADCT).

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