With the dollar hitting record lows every day, how can you make money in stocks? The short answer is to invest in growing companies based outside the U.S.

This strategy has propelled my investment newsletter to outperform the S&P 500 in the first nine months of 2007. Specifically, stocks highlighted in The Cohan Letter -- I highlight three stocks per month -- are up an average of 17%, compared to a 7% rise in the S&P 500 since the beginning of the year. Which three picks have done the best?·

• Posco (NYSE: PKX) rose 48% from $92.70 to $178.77. Barry Summerlin highlighted this Korean steel company, which I suggested might do well in an August post -- it's up 46% since then;
• CVRD (NYSE: RIO) -- the Latin American telecommunications mining company -- rose 45% from $18.50 to $33.85; and
• New Oriental Education and Technology Group (NYSE: EDU) -- a Chinese educational testing company -- rose 34% from $43.75 to $65.66.

I don't know whether these particular stocks have peaked, but if the dollar keeps dropping, they could continue to do well.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

OK, so who doesn't want to buy Inco? The latest bidder at the table is Brazil's CVRD. The company plans to offer a whopping $15.1 billion for the popular miner.

It's hard to believe that – in the Internet Age – the big money is not being made with companies like eBay or Yahoo, but with crusty commodities companies. Then again, the world is undergoing an tidal wave of industrialization, especially in China and India.

That means there will be lots of demand for nickel, which is good news for Inco's shareholders. Interestingly enough, since Inco sold itself a month ago, there are now six bidders chomping at the bit to snag the company.

Actually, CVRD looks like a good bet as the winner in the contest. The company is massive, with a market cap of $55 billion.

So, should investors grab more stock of Inco? Probably not. It's getting into nose-bleed levels right now – and as usual, the pros have taken much of the profits already.

Tom Taulli is the author of a variety of books, such as the Complete M&A Handbook (Random House) and has his own firm, InvestorOffering.com.