Two weeks ago I decided to sell my shares of E*Trade (ETFC) after concluding it did not fit my investment criteria. It was one of my successful picks for 2010 and I made money having sold puts establishing a base price of $13.50. It closed Friday February 25 at $15.89.

I might not have chosen to post about this except for news that Ken Griffin's hedge fund Citadel Investment Group plans to sell much of its stake in E*Trade Financial. The largest shareholder selling out is news. Citadel will still hold valuable warrants, giving it the option of taking a very large position again, but for now there seems to be a change of heart for them as well.

Diversified publisher McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (MHP) is likely to face a challenging 2011.

McGraw-Hill's education segment will face an increasing sluggish textbook market, as public school systems -- particularly those in poorer U.S. school districts, K-12 -- continue to belt-tighten in every way possible, due to state and local budget cutbacks. Translation: use existing textbooks longer, and increase use of the used-book market.

Stocks to sell that spring to mind right now are probably not in the energy sector. Crude oil prices are up 16% in six weeks. Dividend investors continue to seek out low-risk, high-yield stock picks. So you would think that the major crude oil and energy stocks are good buys right?

Wrong. The fact of the matter is that as we enter another earnings season, the numbers just aren't there for many crude oil blue chips. Even with oil prices improving right now, the ship has sailed on Q3 and those profits are all over but the counting. And as many investors will see soon, those profits may not be as healthy as many crude oil stocks would like.

With the merger war between Dell, Inc. (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) at last drawing to a close with the latest $33 a share offer from HP for 3par, Inc. (PAR), tech stocks have really been in focus lately. A spate of merger and acquisition action has prompted a renewed focus on information technology companies, particularly cloud computing stocks.

However, don't be fooled into thinking that a bunch of big spenders in the technology sector means that all tech picks are doing well. In fact, a number of big name blue chips in the industry continue to face very difficult roads ahead. Here are 5 blue chip tech stocks stumbling right now:

Health care stocks are seen as low-risk investments by many stock market investors. After all – folks will always get sick, right? While that may be the case, it's an oversimplification to say that all health care stocks then have a built in customer base. The fact of the matter is that the health care industry has seen a big shakeup in the wake of Obama's health care reform bill and not all stocks in this sector are adapting well.

To keep your portfolio in perfect health, here are three big-name health care blue chips to sell now.

When it comes to buying inexpensive stocks, sometimes investors think that they can find bargains for just a few dollars a share. Sometimes they are right -- but other times these penny stocks can expose your portfolio to big risk and lose you a bundle in a hurry. Here are five popular stocks under $2 a share you should avoid like the plague.

Penny stock investing tends to be riskier than investing in large cap stocks, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for losers in your quest for big penny stocks that take off. Here are five penny stock losers to avoid:

After the stock market's antics in May, things appear to be on the mend in June with the broader market trending upwards -- especially thanks to a bullish start of this week as the revaluation of China's yuan took center stage. But a rising tide does not lift all boats. Some stocks have been pushed down for a reason following the stock market's consolidation last month, and these picks need to be trimmed from your portfolio immediately.

Here are the three worst blue chip stocks according to my latest analysis of the market:

In-N-Out Burger, a privately held West Coast fast-food chain with a rabid and almost cult-like following, has been slow to expand beyond California. But the In-N-Out philosophy has also resulted in unmatched popularity that has current locations swamped. The only thing to do is open more stores -- including a rumored expansion into Dallas, Texas, in what would be a huge reach east for the chain.

The move should have Burger King Holdings (BKC) very worried – and not just because there will be another competing fast-food joint in town. The fact is that In-N-Out is seeing booming growth due to its business model and corporate philosophy at a time BK is losing momentum day by day.

It's no secret that China's phenomenal growth has been driving the global recovery. China's first-quarter GDP grew at an 11.9% annual pace despite three significant increases to reserve requirements that were designed to cool lending and growth. That's why in much of 2009 and early 2010 I was bullish on China and overweighted my global portfolios in favor of this country.

But all good things must come to an end and right now it's time to get selective about which China stocks you buy. That's why I recommend investors cut back their China holdings and look for new opportunities in emerging markets.

In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis and mixed earnings report around the industry, there's a lot of volatility in the energy sector. That uncertainty is causing many investors to rethink the oil stocks in their portfolio.

And when it comes to oil stocks, there's no bigger player than Exxon Mobil (XOM). If you're wondering what to do with this stock, here's some help: Recent news has provided three big reasons to sell.

By now, nearly every person in this country has heard or read about a second oil rig accident which has happened near Morgan City, Louisiana. Although it appears that only a small amount of environmental damage was done, how will the reaction to this news play out in the markets through the coming week?

I'm very thankful that this most recent oil rig accident happened late on a Friday. I certainly believe that if this accident had happened a few hours earlier in the day, I probably wouldn't have liked to witness the way the markets reacted. Now, we have two days to absorb the news of what has happened before full-scale trading resumes. Really, I'm very happy about that.

Several years ago, no investor needed convincing that General Electric (GE) was a stock to sell. In fact, for most of this century GE stock shares were dead money. After General Electric peaked at around $60 a share in late 2000, the stock moved steadily downward before finding a comfortable range between $25 and $35 for the most of the decade.

But after the financial crisis, things got even worse. During the height of the global economic meltdown, the stock was one of the biggest dogs in the park -- with a severe flea infestation. In March 2009, GE stock hit a historic intraday low of just $5.73. With shares cruising up around $20 now, some bulls are saying General Electric is a buy because it has bottomed out and will move back up to its old $30 range. There's even speculation of takeover aspirations at General Electric, with some likely GE buyout candidates among top-performing small-cap stocks in related industries.

A lot of investors think Amgen (AMGN) is a great next-generation biotech company. Wrong. Amgen was a decent last-generation biotech company.

It's terribly managed outfit living on EPO drugs for dialysis and oncology patients. True, it has a billion dollar (actually more) drug, Neupogen, but it could be subject to generic competition in the United States from TEVA within two years.

This declining company lost patent protection for its statin, Zocor. It has replaced some of these sales with three new drugs, but, in reality, they cannot make up for the lost revenue from Zocor.

Merck's (MRK) revenues are stagnant and the company has a very weak pipeline. Even if health care reform adds more patients, it will also bring increased pressure to cut prices.

Pfizer (PFE) was the darling of the 1990s. Well, so was Bill Clinton, and like Clinton, the company pops up now and again in the news, but none of it really matters.

Pfizer's premier product, Lipitor, comes off patent this year and will get hit by generic competition in 2011. This drug has $11 billion in sales, which will shrink to $4 billion or less, and with that could go $5 billion or so in profits.