Last November I wrote Chasing Value: Apple's Great, but This Stock Is Better! with the audacity to state "...the potential to beat Apple's prospects by 33 to 1 -- now that is amazing!"

Yes you read that correctly. I still believe a dollar invested in EZCorp (EZPW) will earn 33 times that of a dollar invested in America's sweetheart Apple Inc (AAPL). Of course anyone can make any proclamations that they want. Few dare as I have to post the results when they are not favorable as I have over the past five years.

Today however, I will not be swallowing my pride as EZCorp, a leading pawn shop and cash advance company, has indeed out performed the tremendously successful Apple since the original story. It is worth mentioning to those that would point to Apple's ten-year run that EZPW was the better stock over the long haul as well.

It should surprise no one that oil stocks have taken the lead in the first quarter, while financial stocks -- after a good two-year run -- have been tamed. This is how things have shaped up through the first quarter for my 2011 stock picks. (For a look at my original picks, see here: part 1, part 2, and part 3.)

Normally, if I said a business was underwater, investors would think the worst. Actually, in the summer Noble Corp (NE) was underwater -- and investors were not impressed. However, this was a great buying opportunity, and although the company is still underwater, it is also a market leader among my stock picks and the overall market -- even among oil industry players. With its fleet of 69 offshore drilling rigs, Noble stands tall.

Sometimes I am so confounded by my fellow investors that I have a hard time finding somewhere to do a reality check, so I throw myself on the mercy of the blogosphere today. I do this because I have found no solace by making inquiries with brokers, analysts, traders, friends, family, and fellow investors large and small.

For almost three years I have been touting a EZCorp (EZPW) stock that just keeps rising, and I believe is still under valued. Way undervalued. Before I continue let me make it clear I own the stock personally and in my investment company's portfolio -- still eating my own cooking. The initial shares have a cost basis of $11.80. EZPW opened at $29.20 today and is trading higher.

Yesterday EZCorp announced the acquisition of a majority interest in it's Australian partner: EZCORP to Form Global Strategic Alliance With Cash Converters. This expands the global reach of both businesses, increases the range of services, and should also improve efficiency in a broad number of areas.

"As the old saying goes, banks are happy to make loans to anyone who can prove they don't need them," observes Alexander Green.

The editor of The Oxford Club explains, "But what do you do if you're a blue-collar worker with a checkered credit history, an uncertain unemployment picture and no high-quality collateral? These folks are turning to pawnbrokers such as EZCorp (EZPW).

"Based in Austin, EZCorp operates more than 1,000 pawnshops and payday loan storefronts in the United States, Canada and Mexico. It also has equity stakes in pawnshops in Britain and Australia.

We are only one month into the new year and there have not been many dull moments. Games are going on in the Middle East and they are not the friendly kind. In Egypt a million plus protesters are playing a game of chicken with the Mubarak government demanding he step down from his 32-year-old reign as perpetual president.

This is not radical Islam fundamentalists; it is even more fundamental. The people want to improve their daily lives in a meaningful way. Education, infrastructure, clean water and clean streets. Speaking of infrastructure and getting back to the less dramatic but still important great stock picks Telefonica (TEF) and General Electric (GE) were the big winners so far bouncing over 10% in January.

On Friday I had the opportunity to present an investment strategy I developed over the past few years to a major asset manager interested in learning the intricacies. Among the questions he asked, one that comes up often, is how do I go about finding particular stocks that I think might be of value.

The answer of course is not so simple, because like any other type of discovery they come about in a variety of ways. Sometimes it begins with a story, as it did in December 2008 when I included EZCorp (EZPW) among my 2009 stock picks (and 2010 and 2011). In this case I was pondering what was going to be safe, and perhaps even in growing demand during a year of financial turmoil and high unemployment. The answer was pawn shops and cash-advance stores.

I have already gone on record this year saying that financial companies and insurance stocks are going to continue to rebound. In my previous two posts Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- 5 of 11 and Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- 6, 7, 8, 9, I included several financial institutions. Today I add an insurance company.

The industry got whacked hard for many reasons. For one, it makes a significant amount of profit by investing its float, and like every other investor, the industry lost a pile of money in the financial crisis. It was embroiled more directly than some industries, as several insurers are affiliated with banks. Finally the housing crisis meant disruption to payment streams by homeowners who were delinquent on more than their mortgages.

This is the fifth year that I am posting my stock picks for the year. There is a lot of foolishness in doing so because each year that I have made such suggestions, including 2009 when I owned all of the picks, it is assumed that I would hold all of the positions without responding to market conditions, or changes in the specific company. No adding to, or cutting a position. This is not the real world.

It is not possible for everything to remain static. For example, you might find that you hold a stock that made a great run through three quarters, beyond your wildest expectations, and decide it has passed a point where the metrics cannot support anything close to the price. Under normal circumstances you might sell it, except you cannot. By the end of the year the profit you might have realized fades away and you end up reporting on something that is not a true measure of your objective strategy. Nevertheless, once again I will stick with this approach because this seems to be how its done in every publication's annual picks. This year there are eleven.

The year 2010 has come and gone and my results are in. This is my fourth annual stock results to be reported on BlogginStocks, so something of a track record is starting to form. This past year ended with a modest improvement over the unmanaged Standard & Poors 500 index

The original story, Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010, took readers through a review of many candidates, concluding with the ten picks, using prices from Dec. 28, 2009.

Could a stock that you made 1,100% on still have room to run? Yes, it is possible. In particular if it had a near death experience as a penny stock for a while.

That is the case with Newcastle Investments (NCT), the CMBS lender and real estate investment company that reached a recent high of $7.10 and has settled back down, most recently hovering between $6.70 to $7.00. It closed Thursday December 23 at $6.71.

One month ago I stuck my neck out a ways by making the statement that EZCorp (EZPW) was a superior investment to the current market darling Apple Inc. (AAPL). Furthermore that was not the limit of my claim, I wrote it was 33 to 1 better -- that's a lot. Since I am a glutton for punishment, I always post my good and bad calls.

I will be following this idea for one, three, six, and 12 months, if reader interest remains, to see how things progress. EZCorp is one of my 2009 and 2010 stock pick winners and I will be sticking with it in 2011, as well. See Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- The Journey Begins.

It's that time of year when I start thinking about my 2011 stock picks, and enough folks have been nudging me that I might as well get on with it. The list will not be finalized until the end of the month. During the interim time I will take readers through a number of possibilities, explaining the rational for my suggestions along the way and adding and subtracting until I get the list down to ten.

Today I will start by reviewing opportunities discussed in another post and determine which of these stocks might provide the best value. The list was originally cast as a globally diversified, large cap, dividend paying and relatively stable group of companies that would likely weather any storm. See: Chasing Value: Bonds, Gold, Stocks and Capital Flight

This company has been on my recommended list for longer than any other company in the four and a half years that I have been writing for BloggingStocks -- with only one exception, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG). The company is EZCorp (EZPW), which beat the Street again with third quarter earnings per share of $0.56, three cents better than the analyst estimate.

Revenue for the quarter was $198.2 million, which tops the estimate of $191.01 million. The company projects 2011 earnings higher too: EPS of about $2.35 vs. an estimate of $2.25. EZCorp grew earnings by 33% and increased its footprint by 127 stores through new construction and acquisitions.

The third quarter of 2010 is in the books and the results are in. My picks have sagged behind the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after surpassing it by a large margin for most of the year. The original story, Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010, was the culmination of a process presented to our readers and finally narrowed down to the select group using final prices from Dec. 28, 2009. For comparison, I tracked the S&P 500.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is the new star of the show and Brasil Telecom (BTM) remains in the dog house.

I have always felt that for all the blabbing we do -- or blogging, in my case -- we should try as best we can to be accountable for our good and bad calls. This report is long overdue, but I will post it anyway since all of my past year's picks and results have been made public.

The market was very harsh in the early part of 2009, filling investors fear and trepidation, and sinking to a March 9, 2009 bottom. Perhaps some of the bleeding has stopped, but the economy has not healed as bears and bulls seem to carry the day, or every other day.