As a long-standing authority on Fidelity funds, advisor Jim Lowell has extraordinary access to the top managers within the Fidelity family.

Here, the editor of Fidelity Investor offers his personal outlook on Fidelity Magellan (FMAGX) -- which he considers a "smart buy" -- plus highlights from an in-depth interview he recently conducted with Magellan fund manager Harry Lange.

"Magellan is a buy for growth. Make that global growth. Indeed, I would consider this fund a 'stellar' long-term buy. The fund turned $10,000 into over $16 million since its launch back in 1963 compared to that same $10,000 over the same long-term time period being turned into only $800,000 if it had been invested in the S&P 500.

"Magellan is currently considered a large cap growth fund. But Lange can, has and will continue to invest in either growth or value stocks in a range that reaches across the mid- and small-cap borders if it suits him. Foreign holdings make up 26.5% of the portfolio.

"The fund's top ten holdings: Nokia, Corning, Canadian Natural Resources, Staples, Monsanto, Google, Applied Materials, America Movil, Suncor Energy, and Allergan." Meanwhile, in Lowell's latest issue of Fidelity Investor, he interviews Harry Lange. Here is Lowell's Q&A with the Magellan manager:

Fidelity Select Healthcare (FSPHX) is among the latest additions to the model portfolio maintained by Jim Lowell to his Fidelity Investor. Here's the reasoning behind this "defensive" fund selection.

"I remain bullish long-term, both with regard to the global economy and markets and with specific regard to our own. But, I also remain cautious about any immediate solution to solve what could be even more meddlesome underlying issues with regard to our economy and markets.

"Today's potential for 'recession' now looks more highly correlated to the 1989-1991 recession; driven largely by a speculative housing bubble and the S&L and Equity Line selling frenzy. We're prepared.

"Meanwhile, we have added Fidelity Select Healthcare to our portfolio. Select Healthcare is managed by Matt Sabel. Matt has done what few other recent managers of this fund have been able to do – he's outperformed his
benchmark MSCI US IM Health Care index since taking over the fund in August 2006.

"In the wake of the worst sell-off since 9/11 for most major European and Asian markets, our Fed finally stopped telling us that the building is on fire and entered the building to rescue what it can with an emergency 75 basis point rate cut," notes Jim Lowell.

The editor of Fidelity Investor explains, "The uppshot is that while the rate cut comes too late to cure what's ailing the markets, it does come as a welcome bowl of chicken soup which will help re-nourish the markets over time; look for more bowls of soup (in the form of more rate cuts) to come."

Lowell continues, "For long-term investors like us, time is on our side. After today's sell off, the standard value indicator for whether the markets are over- or under-valued continues to make the case for stocks being the best long-term buy.

"The P/E on the S&P 500 is hovering around 13 – it was north of 16 just a month back; but even a P/E of 16 is a value call. Bonds of every type and duration, on the other hand, are selling at historically high prices and yielding a
paltry sum. Meantime,

"the US dollar, dinged in knee-jerk reaction to today's Fed rate cut, is likely to gain strength as we wend our way through the next several months since the reality of recession is no longer a US but now a global phenomenon and that bell will toll for foreign currencies.

"Against this backdrop, the dollar will be a solid buy for near-term volatility, bonds will trade on the psychology of fear and uncertainty and US stocks will be the best value for long-term money."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

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.

In his Forbes ETF Trader, Jim Lowell says his top 2008 speculative bet is PowerShares DB G10 Currency Harvest Fund (ASE: DBV).

"This exchange-traded fund is a unique way to play the bank shot of the wildly volatile currency markets. It seeks investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Deutsche Bank G10 Currency Future Harvest Index.

"This index is intended to take advantage of the fact that currencies associated with high-interest rates tend to rise in value relative with those associated with low-interest rates.

"The ten currencies that the index selects from are the US dollar, the euro, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, British pound, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, and Swedish krona.

"The upshot: interest rates are always rising in one of the above economies while falling in another -- 2008 will be no different."

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.

In his Forbes ETF Trader, Jim Lowell says, "My top conservative pick for 2008 is the iShares Lehman TIPs (NYSE: TIP). This exchange-traded fund enters the mix as a less-spirited way to play the recessionary hand that 2008 could deal.

"While the performance behavior of the underlying holdings will make the case for this being nothing more than a dolled up basket of long-term Treasuries, the market reality is that in times of duress, the momentum tends to favor these instruments over most others.

"But don't buy it for yield or price. Instead, view it as a life raft on the deck of all the above picks. It's good to know it's there if you need it -- and according to consensus estimates, in 2008 it's not a case of if but when."

As an alternative, conservative investors can buy the iShares S&P 100 Index Fund (ASE: OEF). The S&P 100 Index is comprised of the largest 100 stocks in the S&P 500 Index. As such, it's an intermediate play between the Dow 30 and the S&P 500, and ought to continue to benefit from the current flight to quality in '08.

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.

"My top conservative pick for 2008 is Fidelity Large Cap Stock (NASDAQ: FLCSX)," says Jim Lowell, mutual fund expert and editor of The Fidelity Investor.

"Unlike most every diversified growth fund from any fund family, you won't find small-cap stocks in this portfolio. You will find companies with established growth records (based on actual products and actual earnings).

"A top-ranked manager, according to our proprietary manager ranking system, Mat Fruhan came to this fund back in May of 2005 by way of having successfully managed several Fidelity sector funds (including Financial Services, Air Transport, Cyclical Industries, Defense & Aerospace and Consumer Staples, called Food & Agriculture when he ran it back in 2001).

"The fund isn't as growth-oriented as some in his peer group, but despite having financials rule his sector-weighting roost, he's managed to deliver reasonable returns.

"His concentrated portfolio (190 names) and focus on his top ten picks (28% of the fund's assets are invested therein), make this fund a solid choice for participating in what is likely to remain a general flight to quality (ie., a continued climb up the capitalization ladder) in 2008."

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.

"Fidelity China Region (NASDAQ: FHKCX) is my top speculative idea for 2008," says Jim Lowell, mutual fund expert and editor of The Fidelity Investor.

"With regard to China Region, caution will likely always remain my buy word. But, for the first time since this fund's inception back in 1995, this fund is beginning to exhibit characteristics of both the region (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia that account for 55% of its assets) and China (which now accounts for over 30% of the names in the portfolio -- a year ago that weighting was 6%; in March of this year it was 7%).

"New manager, Wilson Wong, who took the helm in June of this year, is finally enabling this fund to both live up to its name and differentiate itself from Fidelity's and other Asia-focused funds. That's plus one in my book.

I've just returned from the World Money Show, where some 10,000+ investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the advisors featured at the show, and I have been highlighting some of their favorite investment ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.

"As we head into 2007, some of the songs from 2006 will remain the same, chief among them the thirst for large-cap stocks in the established markets of the U.S., Europe, and Japan," says mutual fund and ETF expert Jim Lowell. "Of those three marketplaces, one stands out as not having participated in last year's global rally; Japan.

"Such a perspective isn't shared by any of its Pacific Rim neighbors or emerging market players, all of which have enjoyed nearly nonstop gains for several years in a row, and most of which are trading at recent or historical highs. Overall, that makes Japan interesting from both a valuation and a contrarian perspective."

Here, the editor of The Forbes ETF Advisor reviews his buy-rated Japan exchange-traded funds:

"Japan, the world's second largest economy, continues to recover nicely from its epic recession. It also continues to benefit from its location. The iShares MSCI Japan Index (NYSE:EWJ) covers nearly the entire market capitalization of the Japanese markets, but the ETF correlates most closely with the Nikkei 225 (Japan's equivalent to our S&P 500).

"Its top holdings include stocks such as Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) and Sony (NYSE:SNE). Blue chips in the land of the rising sun haven't always risen; but I think there time has come.

For the past two decades, Jim Lowell developed an industry-leading expertise in analyzing mutual funds, with a particular focus on Fidelity funds. During that time he developed an annual feature known as his "Hot Hands" pick.

He explains, "Those who have followed my Fidelity Investor newsletter know that one trick in our proprietary playbook has been buying the previous year's best performing Fidelity fund and sticking with it for the new year. More often than not it turns out to be a big winner."

Given the growing popularity of exchange-traded funds, Lowell recently launched a new service, The Forbes ETF Advisor. And for the first time, he is applying his Hot Hands approach to ETFs.

He cautions that this strategy has not beaten the market every year. However, he says, "It has provided very healthy long-term result and I believe that many growth-oriented investors could improve their performance by putting a reasonable (5% to 10%) portion of their money to work following my Hot Hands strategy."

He explains, "Here are the ground rules for the strategy. First I looked at all of the diversified ETFs for each year between 2000 and 2006. I excluded single-sector ETFs, and on the international side, I excluded the geographically nondiversified (single country) international ETFs.