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.

This morning before the market opened, Newcastle Investments (NCT), one of my 2011 stock picks (see Chasing Value: 2011 Picks Dust the S&P) reported earnings that stomped all over analysts estimates. The company reported that in the fourth quarter of 2010, income applicable to common stockholders ("GAAP income") was $197 million, or $3.18 per diluted share, compared to $17 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

For the full year 2010, GAAP income was $657 million, or $10.96 per diluted share, compared to a loss applicable to common stockholders ("GAAP loss") of $223 million, or $4.23 per diluted share, in 2009.

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.

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.

One of my bargain basement stock picks (thank you Sir John Templeton) is flying off the shelf today and has been for a month. Newcastle Investment Corp. (NCT) was one of last years successful picks. It is trading up today almost 10% as I write this at 3:30 PM, EDT

I have written before about picking up this as a penny stock for 60 cents a share amidst the market panic of days gone by, now sitting on over 500% gains, and still counting as the stock is currently trading at $3.77 -- yikes! . (update: $3.84 +11.95% final)

I rarely dabble in penny stocks but Newcastle is a CMBS player with very diversified real estate interests that I have been following since it was trading near $20 per share and paying a double digit yield.

The first four picks were all from the contenders list, but here I reach back to earlier in the year, when in May, I wrote about why I thought Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) would outperform four other, more popular stocks.

I compared it to Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B).

During the past seven months this turned out to be true for half the period, but Apple came on strong and passed it by the second review.

"If you are looking for maximum rebound potential, you have to go lower down on the quality spectrum; it is typically the lower quality and lower priced stocks that will have the largest gains when the market rebounds," says turnaround expert George Putnam.

In his industry-leading service focused on distressed companies, The Turnround Letter, he looks at a package of 10 stocks recently trading below $5 per share while also offering "bundles of cash."

Here's his review:

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"Fluor (NYSE: FLR), my top pick for 2009, is a global heavyweight in the engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance field," says noted value investor Nathan Slaughter.

The editor of Half-Priced Stocks explains, "2008 won't go down as one of the most memorable for Fluor shareholders -- but 2009 is likely to tell a different story.

"Texas-based Fluor began by building oil refineries over a century ago and has since expanded its repertoire to encompass other specialties including power, telecommunications, and transportation. Annual revenues are now $20 billion.

"In early December, President-elect Obama unveiled ambitious plans for a hefty economic stimulus package, spearheaded by a pledge to rebuild highways and complete other public works projects that will revitalize our aging infrastructure.

"These bold initiatives are aimed at putting workers back on the payrolls and reinvigorating the nation's economy -- but they will also funnel billions into the coffers of construction firms like Fluor.

Since the stock market is down so much I have been buying something in the fourth quarter almost every week. I have been patient and have been expanding my watch list. The difficulty for me is that I feel like almost everything is on sale -- but is everything a bargain?

Maybe not; maybe I'm delusional. Perhaps that is because I am tuned into another time and place when I would have been dancing in the streets if I were able to acquire Anglo American ADR (NASDAQ: AAUK) or General Electric (NYSE: GE) for pennies on the dollar. Maybe that is all these stocks are worth? That is what Wall Street currently thinks. That is what Main Street currently thinks. There is a lot more bad news than good.

Then why is Warren Buffett buying, and Carl Icahn and Ken Heebner? After all, I'm just following in their shadows.

The reason is that most investors are simply focused on all the bad news. That is what has most folks' attention and that is making the market -- bankruptcies, billions of dollars in losses, government out of control, Wall Street out of control and more. There is also serious fear things will get worse. If you lost money in the stock market (all of us), or lost your job or your house or any combination of the above, then things look bleak and for now they are. However, we should not be investing for now; we should be investing for the future.

Consider the following elements that support a recovery in the next year. I do not mean a boom, just a recovery -- just a more positive investing environment.

1) By spring it is estimated the government will have poured $2 trillion dollars into an economy of $13 trillion over a 12-month period. Not only is this a market stimulus, but it may prove to be highly inflationary, and if so equities are a better place to be then cash.

For 2009 I will be tracking a real portfolio created this quarter in scary times, when everyone is second guessing themselves, the market, and the economy. Last week I wrote Chasing Value: Annaly Capital Mgmt -- from watch list to buy noting that Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY) was acquired, for among other things its 15% yield and basic stability. It trounced the market in 2008, but the yield by itself was very rewarding and I expect that to continue.

Yesterday General Electric (NYSE: GE) dropped over 8% from $17.39 to $15.96. This triggered a buy order I had in at $16.00, after a negative outlook by rating agency Standard & Poors suggested that there was the potential that GE could lose its prized AAA rating sometime in the next two years based on stress it was feeling on its balance sheet related to its financial services division, and GE's uncertainty in other businesses.

There truly are very few places to hide during the current financial crisis and economic recession. Trust in the markets is at an all-time low, and volatility is at an all-time high. The most senior of professionals in this business are shaking their heads in amazement.

We have not seen anything like this during our lifetimes. When it will end is anyone's guess. The silver lining, I suppose, is that it will indeed end at some point. When it does, investors can look forward to a landscape of well-run companies trading at discounted prices.

One of my favorite blue-chip names that have been taken down along with everyone else is Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

I wrote about the company in early September when times were tough, but before the financial crisis brought its wrath. At the time, I thought shares were undervalued at a price just north of $30 per share.

If you do not own Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) already, you were not listening last year when I was ranting and raving every month why this was a must-own stock. It was one of my favorites last year, remains one of my favorites now and looks to have an open road ahead of it in 2008.

Valero's profit margins were squeezed in the second half of 2007 by high crude prices rising while pump prices were stable, but that is likely to change, and I think the stock can continue to appreciate significantly. It may not change fast , as the economy is going through some rough spots. Also, VLO, which is reporting earnings on January 29, may still have some lingering margin issues.

Last year this was one of my top picks and jumped 36%. I rarely make specific predictions as analysts tend to do, but I feel comfortable stating VLO can beat all the major indices. Everything I liked about Valero last year is still in play now, so I'm letting this winner ride.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"Pool Corp. (NASDAQ: POOL) is my favorite speculative idea for 2008," says Nathan Slaughter, editor of Half-Priced Stocks. "Pool Corp. is the world's largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies -- selling more than 100,000 different products from a nationwide network of 285 customer service centers.

'Sales have advanced 21% annually over the past decade, and earnings have more than kept pace -- climbing at a stellar 34% clip. Naturally, all of this has translated into hefty gains for shareholders, with the stock soaring almost 1,000% over the past ten years.

"In recent months, though, the company has been an indirect victim of the sluggish housing market, as a slowdown in new home construction in key markets like Arizona and California has forced management to trim back its full-year earnings guidance.

"However, don't let this short-term weakness cloud the sunny long-term outlook. The vast majority of the company's business is tied to maintenance for older pools. Only around one-third of its revenues stem from new pool construction -- and the bulk of that comes from existing homes, not new ones.

But wait ... there's more! In the giving spirit of the holidays, here's a bonus pick for bargain-hunters looking for stocks under the $10 threshold. Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS), manufactures semiconductors that are used primarily in wireless telephone handsets and infrastructure products. Nearly 40% of the company's sales are thanks to Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Sony Ericsson Mobile.

The firm has been a solid performer in the earnings confessional of late, topping analysts' expectations consistently for the past five quarters, by an average surprise of nearly 15%. On November 1, the company reported fourth-quarter profit of $22 million, or 14 cents per share, a penny above Street expectations and a welcome change from a year-ago loss of $96.4 million (60 cents per share). Looking ahead to the current (first) quarter, SWKS officials targeted first-quarter profit -- excluding items -- of 15 to 17 cents per share.

It's time to wrap up our list of 10 stocks under $10. The list was culled from a large grouping of momentum names that have outperformed on a relative-strength basis during the short and intermediate term. The selection was filtered to eliminate any stocks trading above the $10 region, naturally, and then adjusted for other fundamental, technical, and sentiment factors. I hope you've had fun learning about some potential bargains for your portfolio and hearing the stories behind some equities that you've likely not come across in your daily investing research.

The last entry (and these have been in no particular order, by the way) is Allos Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ALTH). The pharmaceutical company is hard at work on technology that improves existing cancer medications. According to Hoovers Online, ALTH's current lead drug candidate -- PDX -- is in trials to combat T-cell lymphoma. Some of the firm's other proposed treatments work to fight solid tumors and lymphoma.