Monday was an extremely trying day for my portfolio and me. Talk about depressing. Let's see, CapitalSource (NYSE: CSE) took a dive of almost 15% on hellishly high volume (it traded more than 17 million shares on Monday, and AOL Finance lists the 30-day average volume as being a little under 3 million shares) on news about a money-losing sale of assets. Now, once I saw CapitalSource moving down, I knew that Newcastle Investment (NYSE: NCT) wasn't going to be trading higher. Sure enough, there was indeed something new at Newcastle. A new 52-week low. The stock closed Monday at $7.06, down 10% and one penny above the low. And then there's MFA Mortgage (NYSE: MFA). It too was down, although only about 2%. Yeah, only. All of these stocks are at prices well below my cost basis.

I'm at that weird crossroads all investors find themselves at some point. Is it too late to sell? Let me tell you, I don't want to be one of those panic sellers who regrets dumping his stocks because as soon as he does so they start to rise. But, I don't want to be one of those holders who doesn't know when enough is enough. It's pretty rough. You don't know whether to add to positions that are faring poorly and thus risk throwing away money, or whether to avoid adding money and thus risk not getting some bargain prices. And in terms of Newcastle, my colleague Sheldon Liber is with me on this. He thinks the stock may turn out to be a value. See this article.

My other colleague, Timothy Sykes, has counseled me to instead focus on strong stocks that are working. I can't say he doesn't have a point. Indeed, my portfolio does seem rather masochistic. For now, though, I will try to avoid any emotional decisions. I am going to continue to watch the financial carnage as it further unfolds and evaluate every potential stock trade very carefully. This summer is going to be a tough one. I'll let you know what happens.

Disclosure I own CapitalSource, MFA, and Newcastle Investment; positions can change at any time.

"USEC (NYSE: USU) is the nation's leading supplier of enriched uranium for use in commercial nuclear power plants -- in fact, it is the only supplier," notes value investor Nathan Slaughter.

In Half-Priced Stocks newsletter, he explains, "Low-enriched uranium is commonly used as fuel in nuclear reactors, and no other company in the U.S. provides it, giving USEC a dominant position in a key niche market." Here is his review.

"Its competitive advantage? USEC has the single best competitive advantage there is: zero competition -- at least in the United States. While the firm does have a handful of rivals overseas, it has reaped the benefit of being the lone U.S. supplier.

"The company has also been awarded lucrative contracts to perform work for the U.S. Department of Defense.

"The company also benefits from the nation's longstanding nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Russia. Specifically, it participates in the salvaging of old Soviet nuclear warheads under the 'Megatons to Megawatts' program, which essentially gives the firm a sharply discounted source of uranium.

In his Half-Priced Stocks newsletter, value investor Nathan Slaughter recently assessed stocks based on the general investment philosophy of Benjamin Graham, the noted value investor under whom Warren Buffett studied.

One issue that stands out in his view is Cabela's (NYSE: CAB), one of the world's largest specialty retailers of hunting and fishing gear, camping equipment, and outdoor apparel.

"The cornerstone to Graham's success and his enduring legacy to value investors was his 'margin of safety' concept. Specifically, he would take a hard look at dividend yields, price-to-book ratios, and other key metrics.

"Cabela's originated as a direct marketer and once primarily sold its products via catalog, but has since augmented that distribution channel with e-commerce operations and a growing chain of nearly 30 stores spread throughout 19 states.

"Right now, we have a rare opportunity to get paid a monthly double-digit dividend and buy the skills of a legendary investment manager for only 85 cents on the dollar," says Dr. Steve Sjuggerud.

Here, in Daily Wealth, the advisor takes a look at David Dreman -- -- noted contrarian advisor -- and the opportunity currently offered in his closed-end fund, Dreman Value Income Edge Fund (NYSE: DHG).

"David Dreman made one of the greatest calls in stock market history. In 1980, he told investors to buy stocks. He didn't just tell a few clients or friends to buy stocks.

"He literally wrote the book on buying stocks in 1980 -- Contrarian Investment Strategies in which he argued, 'The stock market appears cheap by nearly every historical standard.'

"At the time, saying 'buy stocks' was bold stuff. Stocks hadn't made money in 17 years. But Dreman was absolutely right. After 17 years of losses, the stock market started the longest bull run in recorded history, which stretched from 1982 until 2000.

"Fast forward to 2008. Dreman is guarded, but optimistic again. In the May issue of Forbes he says: 'Frightening as the markets look today, there will come a time when the liquidity crisis ends and today's prices for bank stocks look, in retrospect, like bargains.'

While researching GPS maker Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ: GRMN) -- whose stock has lost two-thirds of its value in the last six months -- I can't help but pity those long-term shareholders who reject trend following and technical analysis in favor of investing for the long term. To them, it seemed like only yesterday that GPS was one of the hottest technologies around and this industry leader could do no wrong.

Well, that's usually the time to sell, just as I posted on Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) in January this year and on Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) in November last year, both before they each dropped 40% in just a few months. Because the truth is these popular technology stocks are all expectations. We're not talking Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)-type value investing here.

Sure, GPS is still hot, somewhat, but due to intense competition, margins have been evaporating, forcing analysts to lower their earnings estimates. In their latest quarter, Garmin further strengthened the bear case with spiking inventories and accounts receivable. None of that looks to change anytime soon, and even though it's got a P/E of 10, book value is all the way down near $11 per share!

Nathan Slaugher sees video game retailer GameStop (NYSE: GME) benefiting from several popular new video software titles. Here's the advisor's latest review from his Half-Priced Stocks newsletter.

"The shares of have staged an impressive rally, vaulting over 30% since the beginning of March. Most of those gains followed the firm's fourth-quarter earnings release, which showed more of the same phenomenal growth that we've grown accustomed to.

"Driven by brisk demand for popular software titles like Activision's Call of Duty 4 and Electronic Arts' Rock Band, same-store sales jumped 17.4%, pushing overall revenues ahead nearly 25% to $2.9 billion.

"Meanwhile, despite the quarter being one week shorter, earnings soared 46% to $190 million, or $1.14 per share -- ahead of optimistic guidance that had been raised not once, but twice.

Having worked as a banker for more than 10 years before entering the investment world, Christopher Mayer has a simple thesis behind his book Invest Like a Dealmaker: Secrets From a Former Investment Banking Insider. Essentially, there are two markets for publicly-traded companies. The first, and most widely known, are the stock prices that are available instantly. The other, lesser-known market is the value that these same companies might have to a private buyer. By focusing their research efforts on the latter and using stock prices only as opportunities to buy and sell when it's advantageous, Mayer believes that investors can achieve better results with less stress.

Many readers will be disappointed that Mayer never really takes the analysis much farther than this. He includes some very helpful tips for finding undervalued stocks -- look at enterprise value to ebitda ratios, book value and other metrics unappreciated by most investors -- but there is really not much in here about dealmakers, the world of private equity, etc.

That said, this is a very pleasing little book. Mayer has obviously read pretty extensively about investing, and much of the book consists of odes to the ideas of others. He relates many great anecdotes and quotes from some great investors, and a lot of them are obscure enough that even those who have read about value investing a lot wouldn't have heard them yet.

Invest Like a Dealmaker is almost nothing like what the title would suggest, but it still belongs on the bookshelf of the serious value investor.

It seems that every column with stock picks mentions P/Es, ROEs, and ROICs. But one of the most overlooked metrics is the P/B: the price to book value ratio.

It was a favorite of Warren Buffet's, especially early in his life when he posted some of the best returns of his career with an investment regimen inspired by Benjamin Graham. Price/book is also the first metric that I use when I screen for cheap stocks.

Happily, the latest issue of Forbes pays tribute to this forgotten barometer of value in an interview with 91-year old Walter Schloss, a man whom Warren Buffett called a "superinvestor."

Still going strong roughly 70 years since he started on Wall Street as a runner, Schloss' wisdom should be read by every value investor: Without a computer or visits to companies, Schloss has produced a track record that would leave most hotshot hedge fund managers salivating.

After reading the interview with Schloss, try screening for low price/book stocks on your own using AOL Money & Finance's new stock screener. But remember: finding low price-book stocks is just the beginning of a successful investment. A lot of cheap stocks are garbage. But if you can find a company with solid prospects trading near or below book value, you just might be onto something.

Among my stock picks this year, Newcastle Investment Corp (NYSE: NCT) may seem to have the greatest risk, but it is a calculated risk and has the potential of very high rewards. It has lost two-thirds of its value since the first quarter of 2007 and I believe has the potential to double if it can just tread water for a couple of quarters. The reason the dividend is so high is that the price dropped due to fear in the market place over its loan portfolio, not a loss of cash flow. The fear is palpable, but is it warranted? I do not think so. On December 28, 2007 NCT closed at $13.08 per share.

Newcastle is a REIT that invests in real estate loans, not the actual real estate, and 90% of those loans are in non-residential projects. Over the past six months, the financial sector has become one big horror story and investors ran from the "financial theaters" in panic. So in my own version of the story, Chasing Value: Newcastle's 21.9% yield too good to be I true?, I decided to play Ghostbusters and tried to make it clear that there is value in NCT. Suppose the yield fell with the stock price as defaults affected cash flow, I could still be very happy with a 7% to 8% yield.

I will summarize here by letting you know I did what homework I could and checked out NCT's recent conference call. This company has averaged an 8.8% yield over the last five years. However, today because the stock is now a third of its recent price, the yield has jumped to 21.9%. Newcastle is standing by this dividend. Actually I think it has to, because REITs are required to pay out most of their profits, and Newcastle has earned 23% over the last fiscal year.

Standard & Poor's Scott Kessler offers three strong buys for 2008: eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY), Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) and Oracle Inc. (NASDAQ: ORCL).

Of the 267 stocks whose coverage Kessler oversees, 14 are rated strong buy. From those, Kessler likes these three:

• eBay - Up 15% in the last year, eBay still seems undervalued to Kessler. He thinks its marketplace business is pretty strong -- with good growth in the U.S. and Germany, likes its acquisitions of shopping.com and StubHub and thinks eBay will benefit from international growth. He believes that its PayPal unit is "unheralded" and that it will grow by expanding geographically, by taking on new currencies, and by grabbing new off-eBay payment opportunities. He thinks Skype's new management will find a way to monetize the service to its 100 million users and believes eBay, at a P/E of 20 and forecast 2008 EPS of $1.77, is poised to grow 20% at the low end -- and thus it's reasonably priced.
• Corning - Kessler likes Corning's business mix of flat panel displays, telecommunications infrastructure, and alternative energy. He thinks it will earn $1.53 in 2008 and that at a P/E of 16 and 16% earnings growth, Corning is reasonably priced.
• Oracle - Kessler thinks that despite a forecasted slowdown in corporate spending on technology, Oracle will benefit from two trends: international growth and consolidation in the business software industry -- a trend which Oracle has been pushing. He thinks Oracle is reasonably priced at a P/E of 18 on what he expects to be 2008 EPS of $1.21.

I'd recommend taking a look at these -- but try to decide whether you think they're selling at a good price. One way to do that is to calculate their Price/Earnings to Growth (PEG) ratios -- which divides their P/E by their forecast earnings growth rate. If the number is less than one, the stock may be fairly valued.

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.

What do you do when a stock that you own is falling on no news? That is the case for Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares which closed down today $31.90 bottoming out at $632.07. This is down from it's recent high of $747.24, losing $115.17 or about 20%.

When it was going up there was plenty of good news and hoopla to embellish stories of it reaching $2000, but on the way down there has actually been good news too. I could rationalize all kinds of intriguing stories as to why this has occurred but the most obvious is that it got too expensive and traders started thinking it was time to take some profits.

There are also plenty of investment fund managers wanting to record earnings this year that sold off some of their holdings to make their advertised returns look prettier -- window dressing they call it.

From my perspective Google is a $550 to $600 dollar stock giving it full credit for forward earnings of say $20 per share. Last month I questioned why investors would pay next years price this year . I guess Google's recent vertical leap could only sustain itself so long before other investors started asking the same question.

To find potential opportunities and verify my track record, read Chasing Value or Serious Money.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.

Today Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) announced some restructuring plans that will trim down (SELL) some under-performing consumer packaging and automotive castings divisions. It will be taking some charges to the tune of $845 million as well, and intends to gear up for expansion into higher margin areas. Alcoa also said it raised cash by selling its 7% stake in Chalco, the Aluminum Corp China ADS (NYSE: ACH) and bringing in $2 billion dollars on what was initially a $200 million investment -- "A ten bagger."

It is this latter decision that is not smart, and without further explanation from management I have to question selling a winner. If you look at all of the things that Alcoa did in the last 10 years you will find that the Chalco investment was the smartest, and more importantly, the most profitable, thing it has done. For many years Alcoa stock has been adrift. Since it sold the stock it has only gone up further and as I write these words and look at the price now, ACH is trading up over 5% more to $75.70.

Today Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is the top Internet search and advertising property there is -- No Question! Yesterday it was something else. Why do investors believe that everything now ends with Google? Have we already reached the end of the internet revolution. Maybe we just think Google has locked up the next stages as well.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) started with two graduate students from Standford University and was all the rage. Google started with two graduate students from Stanford University and now it is all the rage. Do we think Stanford is running out of bright graduate students all of a sudden? I would call them and make an inquiry but surely they would not take me seriously.

Has Google perfected Internet advertising? I don't think so, do you? Will Yahoo, Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), News Corp (NYSE: NWS) and all the international players concede an inch of ground more than temporarily?

I am not saying that Google won't eventually conquer the Internet world, (because I do not know) but this feat is by no means as certain as the market currently seems to believe: driving the price of GOOG up $95 per share as I write this story, on no news, in about eight weeks.

I think you all have gone mad if you are buying stocks today just because the market is moving up, or you are planning on federal rate cuts yet to be announced, or Hilary Kramer or James Cramer said so, or you are afraid the train is leaving the station without you, or your stock broker or palm reader has become bullish. There is only one reason to buy stocks and that is to make money and secure your future for the long run. To do that you need to have solid reasons that can be accounted for and demonstrated to have a high degree of probablity. I did not see that today.

A friend of mine asked me today whether they should sell their shares of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and take profits after it's recent runnup. I told them I had no idea whether to buy, sell or hold. There was no concrete data that has been released since it's last quarterly report (after which it dropped by $50 in one day) so to me it is all wild speculation. If you believe that the rate cuts are good for the overall market which includes Google then perhaps you can hang your hat on that -- I won't be.

I have been touting Huaneng Power ADS (NYSE: HNP) for a long time and those that paid heed to my comments made a ton of money with me, but even though I love this stock I am not promoting it today after it's 45% jump in the last six weeks Volatile Market picks: Huaneng Power (HNP) is my pick for the next 50 years. I like to buy on dips as I wrote when it was down 20% off its high not when it is screaming forward to new highs. I think patience is in order.

The New York Times has reported that Warren Buffett is contemplating buying a sizable stake in the investment banking firm Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC). No doubt the rumor affected the stock, which closed today at $123.00 per share, up $8.67 on the day. It had closed as low as $99.75 this past summer amid the news of two of its hedge funds being distressed over subprime loan investments.

If there is money to be made, which I think there is, then "My pal Warren" will be investing. I will be watching closely because I own Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) and Bear Stearns as well. I have written about both stocks: Serious Money: Safe havens -- T-Bills or Warren Buffett? and Chasing Value: Bear Stearns - cheap and growing. In the case of Berkshire I am making a tidy sum, but in the case of Bear Stearns I was broadsided by the subprime fiasco and am just now recovering, although I have not held it long.

It is said that BSC might be willing to sell about 20% of the company and that CEO James E. Cayne, is looking for as much as a 40% premium. A premium to what is the question? If you add it to today's closing price you arrive at a value of $172.20, right at BSC's 52-week high of $172.61. I do not think Buffett or any of the other potential investors would be willing to pay this much or should pay this much. I do believe they would be willing to pay as much as a 20% premium, with an eye to obtaining the potential of a 20% remaining return if they can "set the ship right" and get back on a growth track.