"By 2017, wireless service providers could generate more than $100 billion from services such as text messaging, GPS and movie, and music downloads " says Roger Conrad.

In Personal Finance, he adds, "Even this forecast could prove extremely conservative thanks to an explosion in sales of smartphones." How to play this trend? Here, he looks at Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM).

"Smartphones account for only 11% of the world's mobile handsets; penetration remains under 20% in the U.S. This leaves plenty of room for further growth.

"No US utility owns more of them than Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC), with 17 reactors," explains Roger Conrad, who chose the stock as his latest "growth spotlight" in The Utility Forecaster.

"Carbon free and, above all, paid for, existing nuclear plants are among the most prized assets in the power business.

"Some 80% of company earnings come from its unregulated generation fleet, 90% of which is nuclear. And it's by far the best-positioned US utility to ramp up nuclear output.

"Investors have given up on the water industry -- the sector has fallen 60% -- but the best firms have hardly missed a beat," says utility sector specialist Roger Conrad.

In Personal Finance, the advisor reviews the outlook for the sector and two of his favorite stocks -- American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) and Aqua America (NYSE: WTR).

"The EPA stimates the US will have to spend $335 billion over the next decade to keep the taps turned on, given aging infrastructure and supply degradation.

"The road back from near bankruptcy in 2002 for CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS) has been a rocky one," says Roger Conrad. Here's an update from his specialty service, The Utility Forecaster.

"From Three Mile Island to the Enron meltdown, utilities have always recovered from disaster by cutting debt and operating risk and repairing regulatory relations.

"Last fall, the shares of CMS Energy -- our latest featured growth stock -- plunged from high teens to single digits on recession worries in embattled Michigan. Ironically, however, CMS' underlying business is healthier than at any time since the late 1990s.

"Zero greenhouse gas emissions, 90% average availability as a power source, minimal land requirements and competitive costs: those are just a few of the advantages of geothermal power," explains Roger Conrad.

In his leading-edge New World advisory, he looks at one favorite play on the sector: Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA), which operates a dozen geothermal plants worldwide.

"Geothermal's chief disadvantage is geographical limitations to large-scale applications. Geothermal plants are mainly economic in areas of subsurface or volcanic activity.

"For those in search of a pure play in the water infrastructure sector, my favorite bet is Insituform (NSDQ: INSU)," says Roger Conrad in his newly-launched advisory service, The New World.

Conrad explains, "Its most innovative product is its fast-growing 'trenchless' repair service to aging and cracked pipes." Here's his review.

"Rather than dig up and replace actual pipes, the process involves injecting a compound into the pipe itself which acts to seal any breaches. The result is a lower cost and far less intrusive repair.

"Insituform has languished in recent years, as overly aggressive expansion by prior management ran up against a brick wall of stagnant to falling system investment by municipalities.

"Well managed, dominant firms use downturns to become more powerful -- and that's definitely what Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) is up to," says Roger Conrad in The Utility Forecaster.

"Incorporated in 1924 as a unit of US-based ITT, the Spain-based company now serves 47 million customers in its home country, 150 million in 14 Latin American nations and 45 million elsewhere in Europe.

"Thus far in the recession, diversity and dominance of fast-growing markets has kept Telefonica growing. Overall global customer rolls increased by 15.2% through the third quarter 2008.

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.

Roger Conrad, the advisory industry's leading authority on the utility sector, looks to American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) as his favorite investment idea for the coming year.

In The Utility Forecaster, he notes, "We now have the opportunity to buy America's premier water utility franchise at a discount to book value." Here, he explains the situation and his bullish outlook.

"In early 2003, Germany's RWE paid a hefty premium for American Water Works. Five years later in April 2008, RWE's new management took a $1 billion write-off to unload the company as an independent company in the U.S.

"As a result, we now have the opportunity to re-enter America's premier water utility franchise at a discount to book value.

"American Water has written off hundreds of millions in good will and overhauled oversight practices that had gone soft under RWE. But with third-quarter earnings surging 11% on a 6.2% revenue jump -- and more the same expected into 2009 -- its fortunes are building again.

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.

"Like the U.S., Canada is looking to big infrastructure plans," says Roger Conrad. In The Canadian Edge, he looks to Bird Construction Income Fund (OTC: BIRDF) as his top pick for 2009.

The Canadian income stock specialist explains, "The U.S. isn't the only country about to pour billions into infrastructure; Canada is also making a big move. And Bird Construction will be a prime beneficiary of this infrastructure spending.

"Bird has been a dominant player in building design and construction services for more than 85 years. Today, the company literally has its hands in every province, supporting projects for everything from oil sands mining to school construction.

"Third quarter 2008 revenue surged 31.5%, pushing nine-month growth to 48.3% as earnings per share more than doubled from 2007 levels.

"Meanwhile, order backlog -- the best predictor of future growth -- rose to better than $1.2 billion (Canadian), up from $821 million a year ago and $969 million at the beginning of 2008.

"Investing in agriculture-related companies has been one of our main themes for the past year, and we still favor it," say resource experts Roger Conrad and Yiannis Mostrous.

The co-editors of Vital Resource Investor note, "We're adding a new stock to the portfolio that should benefit from the increasingly higher global demand for fertilizer: Potash Corp. (NYSE: POT).

"Potash is the world's largest and lowest-cost publicly traded potash producer, the fastest-growing segment in the fertilizer business. Its potash reserves are sufficient for more than 100 years of production.

"The company controls about 70% of the world's excess capacity. Potash Corp is also the world's third-largest phosphate producer and fourth-largest nitrogen producer. Current phosphate reserves should last more than 50 years.

"As incomes around the world rise, so does demand for food; and the explosive growth in population is aggravating the situation even further," note Yiannis Mostrous and Roger Conrad.

The co-editors of Vital Resource Investor explain, "The big cycle in food demand has begun, and long-term-oriented investors will be rewarded handsomely." What's the best play? Among their favorites is Monsanto (NYSE: MON).

"Monsanto is the undisputed leader in the genetically modified (GM) seed industry. Its business consists of two segments: Seeds/Genomics and Agricultural Productivity.

"The Seeds/Genomics segment consists of the company's global seeds and traits business, and genetic technology platforms, including biotechnology, breeding and genomics.

"The Agricultural Productivity segment consists primarily of crop protection products, residential lawn-and-garden herbicide products, and the company's animal agricultural businesses.

"Monsanto shares have been affected by the market's shorter-term gyrations, but the underlying business is extremely healthy. In fact, the seed business is currently in a sweet spot as global food demand changes dramatically.

"People want to own more gold when there's a perception of growing global economic and political turmoil," explain resource experts Roger Conrad and Yiannis Mostrous.

In their Vital Resource Investor, the advisor offer their long-term bullish assessment for gold as well their favorite gold mining stock: "Goldcorp (NYSE: GG).

"Every commodity bull market eventually ends when consumers permanently reduce demand with conservation and switch to alternatives, and the producers ultimately over-expand. This, however, only happens over a period of many years.

"To be sure, we've seen demand in the US drop for many vital resources, from copper to energy, as the economy has slowed. Demand from developing nations, however, remains entrenched by necessity, as these suddenly more affluent nations struggle to upgrade their vital infrastructure.

"And although we may see Chinese economic growth slow from its current off-the-chart 10% rate, that country will still face critical needs to build out its cities to meet the millions of new migrants that come every year. And that's a huge call on raw materials.

"Global steel producers are thriving, and their stocks are hitting new highs," note Yiannis Mostrous and Roger S. Conrad, who add, "But the best is yet to come."

In the industry-leading Personal Finance, the two advisors explain, "We're still in the early stage of a truly global bull market cycle for steel, and the companies best positioned to take advantage are headed a lot higher." Here, they look at their "Iron Five."

"As is the case with other building blocks of economic growth, steel is enjoying explosive demand from the developing world. And with the world expanding as never before, steel companies are literally selling as fast as they can produce.

"In the August 2007, we highlighted five first-rate global steel producers. Since then, they've returned an average of 67.4%, versus a decline of 3.7% for the S&P 500.

"The Iron Five are five picks that we believe are ripe for even bigger gains. Like the last group, these stocks are often volatile. They're also vulnerable to the possibility of a general stock market slide and most of all to a dip in global demand growth, particularly from China.

"Wealth building is about buying quality on the cheap; and you're not going to find the best water industry stocks at better prices than they sell for now," says utility sector specialist Roger Conrad.

In his The Utility Forecaster, the advisor reviews the three water stocks that earn a place among the core holdings in his growth portfolio: Aqua America (NYSE: WTR), Consolidated Water (NASDAQ: CWCO) and Southwest Water (NASDAQ: SWWC).

"All three of these water stocks posted disappointing first quarter earnings for very different reasons. However, all remain tapped into long-run, wealth-building opportunities.

"Aqua's first quarter results were by no means a disaster. But they lagged both last year's total and Wall Street estimates.

"Management blamed the slowing economy's impact on housing starts in what had been fast-growing systems, rising bad debt, lower commercial sales, delays in fully digesting acquisitions in the South and longer-than-expected timetables needed to win rate increases.

Resource industry specialists Roger Conrad and Yiannis Mostrous are bullish on the agriculture and water sectors; in their model portfolio they already hold 6 stocks in these sectors.

The co-editors of Vital Resource Investor explain, "We see strong underpinnings for continued higher agricultural prices for many years to come." Here's their latest agrculture play: EI du Pont de Nemours (NYSE: DD).

"Recently the United Nations Food Agency warned of civil war in some countries because of global food shortages. With the rapid urbanization of Asian countries, we see a growing global dependence on a shrinking number of food producing nations, particularly with the world adding 78.5 million people each year.

"There will be ups and downs for prices along the way. A throttling back of America's efforts to develop ethanol so extensively or a move to use something besides corn to brew ethanol could take some of the upward pressure off corn prices.

"A real global recession could also cause food prices to back off for a time and it's also possible we'll see some form of US government intervention to curb food prices, particularly as the presidential election develops.