In sharp contrast to the ten horrifically downtrending stocks I warned against buying in this article, today I feature these 10 solidly uptrending stocks.

AK STEEL (NYSE: AKS)
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD)
United States Oil (AMEX: USO)
Quicksilver Resources (NYSE: KWK)
Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC)
Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY)
streetTRACKS Gold (NYSE: GLD)
Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST)
Converted Organics (NASDAQ: COIN)
Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD)

It's charts like theirs that make you wonder why you're messing around with any other stocks. Ahhh, if it was only that easy. No matter that all the stocks listed above are making new highs, now the concern is that they may have come too far too fast. In 2008, several of these stocks-the gold plays in particular-have risen nearly 50%. Obviously the oil stocks have also been surging, but how much further can the "black gold" plays really run?

All it takes is some news to make you realize the risk involved in smallcap investing. That news came in the form of a horrific earnings report last night from Origin Agritech (NASDAQ: SEED), showing revenues and margins decreasing along with guidance that was more than 50% below the estimates of the one analyst that covers the company.

I often advise against trusting any company whatsoever, but it's rare that one lets investors down so greatly. I had no position in the stock, but along with Converted Organics (NASDAQ: COIN) and Titan Machinery (NASDAQ: TITN), I profiled Origin back in January as an up and coming agriculture stock. Since then, two of those three stocks have broken out to new highs in a similar fashion to this hot sector's leaders like Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT), Mosaic (NYSE: MOS), Monsanto (NYSE: MON) and Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU).

Performance aside, those billion dollar behemoths are established companies, with global investors and brands, while these new kids on the block are the exact opposite. Plagued by having few products, fund raising problems and debt issues, this 50% shortfall exemplifies just one of the many issues with which small-cap companies struggle. I mean they are really fighting for lives! And that's why they are priced the way they are and derided by Wall Street.

Shares of Converted Organics (NASDAQ: COIN) have been on a tear of late, rising from under $6 to Tuesday's closing price of $12.58 in the first weeks of January alone.

The Boston-based company describes itself as "dedicated to producing a valuable all natural, organic soil amendment or fertilizer product through food waste recycling" but so far has not reported any revenue. The company has not reported any substantive events so far this year (i.e. not a single 8-K or 10-Q or 10-K filed with the SEC in 2008), but investors have certainly been flocking to the stock.

One area of concern surrounding the company is this press release that it issued on December 18th:

Converted Organics Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN, COINW, COINZ) today declared a quarterly common stock dividend of one (1) share of common stock for each twenty (20) shares of common stock outstanding, payable to all holders of record of the common stock on the last day of December 2007. No fractional shares will be issued in connection with this stock dividend program. This dividend will be payable on January 14, 2008 to all shareholders of record on December 31, 2007.

Earlier this month we learned that some of the new George Washington dollar coins were found to be missing their In God We Trust inscriptions and today we hear about another mix-up on the new coins. According to a couple in Fort Collins, CO., they have come across a coin with something else missing ... this time George Washington himself has been left off the coin!

After hearing about the first batch of coins missing the edge inscriptions, Mary and Ray Smith, who collect coins, decided that they would run out and grab a couple rolls of the newly minted coins in hopes of finding one of the special collector items. What they got turned out to be a much more interesting find.