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.

Gregg Early focuses on finding long-term growth opportunities among companies that specialize in niche, advanced technologies.

In his The New Tech Investor, he looks to AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) -- which is involved in innovative ventures in both wind power and unmanned vehicles -- as his favorite investment idea for the coming year.

"Two things make AeroVironment a unique company: its story and its stock price during the past year.

"The company has four divisions that by themselves seem very incongruous for moving the whole forward. It has a division that makes some of the most highly lauded and in-demand micro-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in service today.

"It also has a clean energy systems division that's best known for its 'architectural wind' turbines for urban settings, that are installed on manufacturing plants as well as office and apartment buildings.

"Its latter two division are the congruent in direction: one builds electric vehicle (EV) supply systems and the other supplies EV test systems.

"Well, it's finally happened; under mounting internal and external pressure, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has spun off its handset business," says technology stock expert Gregg Early.

This move, he notes, developed after Carl Icahn came in, picked up about 6% of the company, and wanted to shake things up. Here's Gregg's update from his industry-leading The Real Nanontech Investor.

"Motorola's handset division has been lost in the desert since the successful launch of the Razr a couple years ago. Since then, it's lost market share and has been less than imaginative in developing new mobile handsets. This kind of product pipeline strangulation isn't unusual at Moto.

"In the 1990s, the company almost went under because it couldn't quite figure out how to exploit all the great work it was doing in its labs. Getting products to market seems to escape this company.

"It looked like mobile phones were a sector where Moto could make big inroads, and the 'lab to fab' pipeline was working very well-for a few years. Now the No. 2 mobile phone maker is No. 3, having lost its spot to relative newcomer Samsung. And even No. 3 isn't secure if something doesn't happen quickly.

"This has been one of activist investor Carl Icahn's claims regarding the company. Moto is sitting on piles of cash; it has a world-class R&D program, and apparently no one who wanted to do anything bold or even businesslike with either.

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 favorite speculation for 2008 is Australia-based Starpharma (OTC: SPHRY), a 'home run' pick," says Gregg Early in The Real Nanotech Investor.

"The drug delivery sector has been revolutionized by the application of nanotechnologies. And one of the fastest up-and-coming countries in this sector is Australia.

"Starpharma has landed a few significant co-development and assessment deals with some major firms in recent months as it awaits FDA approval for its VivaGel, dendrimer-based topical cream that can prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, specifically Herpes and HIV.

"VivaGel also has spermicidal qualities that are so compelling, one of Starpharma's recent co-development deals was with Durex, one of the world's top condom manufacturers. Durex is considering replacing the near-ubiquitous Non-oxynol 9 spermicidal coating with VivaGel, which is proving to be safe and more effective than N-9.

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.

"Nanotech has an incredibly broad application spectrum and the sector offers enormous opportunities," explains Gregg Early in The Real Nanotech Investor.

"My conservative favorite for 2008 is Bayer (OTC: BAYRY). Although the stock is up 50% since we first added it to our portfolio less than a year ago, its return isn't surprising given current market conditions.

"Bayer has a number of things going for it beyond its significant incorporation of nanotech into various product lines; it even sells Baytubes, proprietary ready-to-use, multi-walled carbon nanotubes. It's also a big, safe stock.

"But it's still undervalued relative to its pharma competitors. And it's a German company that has the spending power of a euro-based firm with significant exposure in every major developed and developing market in the world.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

The BASF Group (NYSE: BF) is the top conservative idea for 2007 from Gregg Early, editor of The Real Nanotech Investor: A Small World of Big Profits. He notes, "BASF is one of the premier chemicals companies in the world and it's well positioned to be the most dominant and influential chemical company of the 21st century.

"Nanotech is to this century what chemistry was to the 20th century -- one of the most pervasive advancements in every aspect of our lives.

"Like penicillin or the transistor, it will take society decades to fully realize the implications. BASF is already well on its way to applying the lessons it has long been learning on this front.