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.

"The great stock pick for 2009 is not a stock -- it is a high risk, extremely volatile ETF," says short-selling expert Michael Shulman, whose work is designed for sophisticated investors.

In his ChangeWave Shorts advisory, he explains, "The Proshares UltraShort Financials (NYSE: SKF) is an inverse double ETF; in other words it moves twice as much -- and in the opposite direction -- from the Dow Jones Financial Index."

The advisor explains, "When the Dow Jones Financial Index goes down 1%, this ETF goes up 2%. High risk, high reward, very high volatility.

"The range in 2008 was $87-$304. You have been warned -- but please, keep reading, because even if you don't buy this ETF, consider my suggestion a warning not to buy financial stocks in 2009.

I've just returned from the World Money Show in Orlando where more than 10,000 investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the U.S. and foreign financial experts featured at the show, and over the next week I will share some of their more intriguing ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.

Among the most bearish of the advisors at the World Money Show was Steven Hochberg, who says "Amidst a unanimous call by analysts for a 2007 market advance, the blue chip indexes are tracing out their final rally."

I would note that many investors are averse to reading bearish commentary. On the contrary, I would argue that all investors -- no matter how bullish -- are well-served by understanding and considering the arguments made by those who disagree.

Here, the editor of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, cautions, "The pending downturn should be accompanied by a major financial sector reversal, which is expected to be the last straw in a long-term, global topping process." Here's his bearish reasoning.

"One of the legacies of the bull market that began in December 1974 and ended in January 2000 is the conviction that speculation and financial engineering are enduring and self-sustaining engines of economic growth. From 1974 to the third quarter of 2006, financial assets held by Wall Street firms soared from 1.3% to 20.5% of GDP.

"The rate of ascent is even faster than the Fed shows, because their figures do not include hedge fund assets, which are estimated to have hit $2 trillion in November. Including this figure raises Wall Street's total assets to a mind-boggling 36.6% of GDP.