Having received many comments about my American Idol post (American Idol: Are Indian call centers skewing the vote?) and remaining puzzled about how a clearly out-classed contestant, Sanjaya, beat out several more talented contestants round after round to remain among the final twelve, I believe I now have come up with a plausible answer.

The answer can, surprisingly, be found in the stock market trends and the daily closing prices -- no kidding!

American Idol will start the countdown tonight from 12 hopeful singers down to the one happy winner. There will be surprises along the way just like in any kind of market. Voting will be with telephone calls and text messages instead of money, but to avid fans, the stakes for their favorites are high. We are told this is the top-rated show on television.

Remember the often quoted comment by Benjamin Graham? He said, "In the short-term the markets are like voting machines, but over the long-term they are like weighing machines." Well, in the short term strange things can happen but in the long term it should make sense. Not perfect sense, but close!

Everyone that commented on my prior post, whether they were supportive of my story idea or thought it was bunk, has contributed to my current idea so I want to thank everyone that took the time to comment -- even those whose manners leave something to be desired.

Sanjaya did not survive because of Indian call centers, or teenage girls, or gay people, or tone deaf listeners or Votefortheworst.com, but truly because of all of them and more. It is the accumulated votes from diverse groups that helped him. It is the marginal votes from unidentified groups as well.

Life in the margins. No matter whether a stock or a market moves a lot or a little, trading volume changes, but the vast majority of shares stay right where they are -- with institutions, long term investors, corporations, funds and other stable places -- so the price is set by the last trade.

The voting on American Idol behaves just like the stock market. The more votes (volume), the more similar it is. Consider the following: The judges would like to believe, and hope the outcome of American Idol will support the most talented singer. It may or may not. My first point is that all of the twelve finalists made the cut for a variety of reasons and everything counts. Singing talent counts the most, but it would be naive to think that was all that mattered. Looks count, stage presence counts, style counts, song choice counts, smile counts, likability counts, judges comments count, singing order counts and race counts too. Everything counts that is perceptible visually, emotionally, audibly, and any way you can think of -- short, tall, fat, skinny, abrasive, funny, congenial -- everything!

Back to Sanjaya. He made the cut, not because of his talent (although he is not untalented), but because he won on the margins. He qualified for consideration in the largest number of perceivable ways that one could. For example, some voting was affected by youth. He is the youngest contestant and would receive some support from that -- and more than anyone else!

One comment I received suggested Sanjaya is gay. Maybe, maybe not. But if you look at the entire cast I would agree the probability is higher than most of the other singers and certainly enough to get a marginal level of support from anyone that might be influenced by this issue -- maybe more than anyone else!

For the purposes of discussion, lets assume he was one of the worst singers among the last 16, something that was relatively uncontested in the comments we received. Then he would be the number one candidate to receive the most votes from the anti-judge or Vote the Worst crowd -- more than anyone else!

If you consider his great smile, long hair, his gentle nature, the fact that not everyone likes to hear the songs belted out the same way, he is not too tall and not to short, and not overweight, then you have an American Idol contestant that would be in the top two or three in each aspect that might receive some conscious or even subconscious support -- maybe more than anyone else!

Ultimately I hope talent wins out. Lakisha is a large women of modest means in many areas that might have an impact on the final results. But she too gets high marks for several attributes and the fact that she may have the most powerful voice, (along with Melinda) with great range and tremendous confidence when she sings will allow her to get a lot of votes -- so many that any shortcoming does not matter. Sanjaya, on the other hand, does not have the same voice but gets high marks in so many things that he made it through.

Is stock picking any different? People look for the hot new thing. They want a bright future! They want to be able to make money. If you are a polluter it weighs against you. If there is a perception of corruption that weighs against you. If you are involved in scandal, that weighs against you. But if you offer a reward with low risk that weighs heavily in your favor -- just like American Idol.

Think about it. I would argue that while Sanjaya is the worst of the remaining contestants based on talent, he is in the top half of the group in as many categories as one could find -- including Indian Call Centers -- even if it was only a few votes (forgive me). If you are a black woman, that won't count for much, there are four. If you are a white male, don't expect that to count for much either, there are four white males. In both cases you better be able to sing well, and sing your heart out.

But as black women and white males are voted off, and everyone that is left is charming, deserving, friendly, and whatever else, you better be able to sing. Looks will count in the end if the vote is close on vocals. But I am optimistic that nothing Sanjaya can do will allow him to best his competition. When there are only six contestants left, everyone is in the top half. Weigh that.

Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.