"Benjamin Graham has been recognized for decades as the father of value investing; Warren Buffett was a student of Ben Graham at Columbia University and later worked for Mr. Graham for several years," notes J. Royden Ward.

The editor of the Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter explains, "We've combined Warren Buffett's and Ben Graham's investing criteria for choosing stocks and and found six high-quality companies.

"We believe that the six stocks that passed our screen each sell at sensible prices, offer reasonable appreciation potential, and provide solid dividends.

While he could have retired many years ago, Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.B) Warren Buffett continues to act like he's in his prime. Hey, perhaps at 80 years old, he is in his prime.

This week, Buffett is visiting South Korea. Of course, he likes the growth prospects of the country and has the cash to pull off some deals there.

Interestingly enough, Buffett was planning on visiting Japan but he had to cancel the trip. Yet he did mention that the country is a great place to invest.

Warren Buffett, world's best stock investor, writes an annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), the holding company in which he does all of his investing. Fortunately for the world, he publishes it for everyone to read. While it is full of good investment advice, it also shows the Oracle of Omaha has a great sense of humor and a lot of wisdom. Here are some excerpts from his latest 2010 annual letter.

On uncertain times: "Money will always flow toward opportunity, and there is an abundance of that in America. Commentators today often talk of 'great uncertainty.' But think back, for example, to December 6,1941, October 18, 1987 and September 10, 2001. No matter how serene today may be, tomorrow is always uncertain."

Last Friday Warren Buffett said he was anxious to pull the trigger on another large deal -- having only recently completed the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A and BRK.B) acquisition of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Since then, prognosticators far and wide have been making suggestions about his next possible moves.

Considering I wrote about the railroads the day before the BNSF announcement, I thought I would share a few ideas, old and new.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) is sitting on $38 billion in cash. Buffett sent a 26-page letter to investors on Saturday, describing his forthcoming goals for this year. Some highlights of the letter are reported in Reuters.

First off, like many other large corporations Berkshire Hathaway has been hoarding cash. Now, Buffett feels that it's time to invest his bundle. He is actively searching for big deals. Reuters quotes him as saying: "Our elephant gun has been reloaded, and my trigger finger is itchy."

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.

Take an investment page from Warren Buffett's playbook: Buffett likes the rails -- perhaps you should too? And Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) fits the bill.

Canadian Pacific was first discussed here on May 1, 2009, at a price of $37.47, and the stock continued to rise this winter after a period of choppy action last summer. Shares easily took out $60 resistance, tested $70, and will likely trend toward $80 by the end of 2011.

Canadian Pacific will probably register an impressive 7% to 9% revenue increase in 2011, after a 10% to 12% surge in 2010.

The past week's data-point-of-consequence for investors had to be investment decisions by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A).

Buffett ended positions in several stocks in the fourth quarter, including the Bank of America (BAC), Nike (NKE), Fiserv (FISV), Becton Dickinson (BDX), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Lowe's Co.s (LOW), Nalco (NLC) and Nestle (NSRGY), according to a filing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Berkshire added to a holding of only one stock in the fourth quarter: Wells Fargo (WFC).

There is no shortage of analysis on the investment techniques of Warren Buffett. It seems that the books about him could fill a library!

However, when looking at his principles, it is not always easy to figure out how he prioritizes things. Of course, few companies have all the criteria.

Well, according to an interview with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission recently, Buffett gave some interesting insight on this.

For Warren Buffett, it wasn't a big deal. Monday, his company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), agreed to purchase the 19.9% of Wesco Financial Corp. (WSC) it did not already own for $548 million. The stock price was only up 1.33% in early trading. Then again, there was no surprise that this transaction would happen -- and that it would be at roughly the net value of Wesco.

Yet the deal certainly has significance. After all, Wesco has been a part of the Buffett empire for decades, and the chief of the company is Charlie Munger, who is the vice chairman of Berkshire. However, he is 87 years old and yes, he is actually thinking about the process of succession. To do this, there will need to be some reshuffling of assets.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) overall option implied volatility of 21 is below its 26-week average of 24, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement for Warren Buffett's conglomerate.

Wendy's/Arby's (WEN) overall option implied volatility is at 40, below its 26-week average of 47, according to Track Data, suggesting less risk into its investor's day on January 27.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Last year, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) was included in my stock picks for 2010 and it lost 4.9%. I gave some consideration to keeping it in the mix this year but thought more highly of other stocks in 2011, so I cast it off.

The turning of a calendar page is arbitrary and investments have only modest correlation to it in most instances. However, two weeks into the year ADM is already up, closing Wednesday at $32.56.

Corn prices have been rising and when last I checked futures were up another 1.47% in early morning trading.

This post is one in a series in which more than 60 newsletter advisors share their Top Stock Picks for 2011. This special report is courtesy of TheStockAdvisors.com.

"A financial crisis, severe recession, a supposedly 'tapped out' U.S. consumer -- none of it has been enough to derail Aeropostale (ARO), the New York City-based teen clothing retailer," says John Reese.

The editor of Validea Hot List Newsletter explains, "While other companies have struggled to survive in the past few years, the mall-based firm upped both earnings and sales in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and it's on track to do so again in 2010.