If you spend any amount of time watching the financial sideshows on cable, you might be convinced that the Earth’s rotation will come to a grinding halt when the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1. Everyone’s in the fear business these days — a trend that will probably continue well into 2009.

But the herd is usually wrong, or at least misguided. The traditional end-of-the-year selling will probably go largely unnoticed this week and next. After all, almost everyone who wanted to sell has already done so — maybe even more than once since the end of September. Those who wanted out are out.

With every sector of the market purged — from securities of all types to commodities — it’s time to start anew. Now, we don’t think the markets will show us an amazing comeback anytime soon, lifting all stocks back to levels we haven’t seen since 2007. But money will eventually flow back into stocks. Good stocks…

We know that shrewd stock picking can pay off in any market. And after the recent destruction, a walk through the rubble can show us plenty of solid names that were forced underwater with the lot of the messy names that got us in this mess in the first place.

Yes, it’s bear of a market. But there are still great undiscovered stocks out there. That’s why we’re continuing to scour the market for the best penny stocks for the New Year.

Best,
Greg Guenthner

December 31, 2008

Shrewd Penny Stock Picking in 2009 was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.