John Reese is an expert in analyzing the investment criteria of "legendary" advisors with time-tested strategies. And one market approach that may be of particular interest to investors during the current period of market turmoil is the value strategy developed by Benjamin Graham. (For more on this strategy, see our other post, "Three Rules of Value Investing".)

In his Validea newsletter, John reese explains, "Benjamin Graham -- considered the greatest investment guru by Warren Buffett -- built his reputation by using an extremely conservative, low-risk approach to investing." Buffett, incidentally, was Ben Graham's student.

Reese continues, "To Graham, preserving one's original capital was every bit as important as netting big gains. Having lived through the 1929 market crash, it's no surprise that the strategy Graham laid out in his classic book The Intelligent Investor was a conservative, loss-averse approach.

"To Graham, an investment wasn't something that could be turned into quick, easy profits; anything that offers such 'easy' rewards also comes with substantial risk, and Graham abhorred risk. In terms of specifics, Graham's approach limited risk in a number of ways, and my Graham-based model lays out several of those methods.

Last week Forbes released its annual list of the fastest growing tech stocks, and it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) topped the list, with nearly $15 billion in sales, representing five-year sales growth of 155%, and 30% EPS growth. To make the list, companies had to have significant sales growth over the past year and five years, as well as a good earnings forecast for the next three to five years. Companies with significant legal problems or corporate governance issues were excluded.

Rounding out the top five were Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN), Euronet Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), and FalconStor Software Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC). Some other familiar names that made the list this year include Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL), Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), and Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: CTSH). Cognizant has been on Forbes list since its inauguration six years ago. For the full list, see the Forbes article.

Also of interest was the Forbes Fast 15, companies that didn't make the list mentioned above, but which Forbes thought were worth keeping an eye on for their potential. Engineering software maker Ansys Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), semiconductor maker Atheros Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), Brubaker BioSciences Corp. (NASDAQ: BRKR), and scoreboard maker Daktronics Inc. (NASDAQ: DAKT) top that list. For the full list, see the Forbes article.

So if, like Aaron Katsman, Georges Yared, and Jim Cramer, you are bullish on tech stocks, then there's plenty on the Forbes lists worth taking a look at.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Assurant (AIZ), Famous Dave's (DAVE), Trinity Industries (TRN), Spartan Stores (SPTN) and SiRF Technology (SIRF) were today's notable initiations:

• Wachovia believes Assurant (NYSE: AIZ) is a unique opportunity to profit from mortgage market turmoil through its force-placed homeowners business, initiating shares with an Outperform rating.

• Nollenberger initiated Famous Dave's (NASDAQ: DAVE) with a Buy rating and expects to see accelerated earnings growth over the next few years driven by: continued rollout of it's new "Smokehouse" unit format, growth of the off-premise catering and to-go business, and ramp in new development.

• Keybanc is positive on Trinity Industries' (NYSE: TRN) diversified product portfolio, market-leading positions, and long-term end market fundamentals, starting shares with an Aggressive Buy rating.

• Banc of America initiated Spartan Stores (NASDAQ: SPTN) with a Buy and believes the company should benefit from the roll-up of independent retail assets and the move toward a customer-centric operating model.

• Banc of America believes rising competitive pressures in PNDs will lead to significant market share erosion in 2008 and started SiRF Technology (NASDAQ: SIRF) with a Neutral rating...

OTHER INTIATIONS:

• Wachovia initiated Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) with an Outperform rating.

• Stifel initiated Bancshares of Florida (NASDAQ: BOFL) and TIB Financial (NASDAQ: TIBB) with Hold ratings.

• Nollenberger initiated Morton's Restaurant (NYSE: MRT) with a Buy rating.

• Ceradyne (NASDAQ: CRDN) was initiated with a Hold rating at Morgan Joseph.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

MOST NOTEWORTHY: American Home Mortgage Investment Corp (AHM), MasterCard Inc (MA) and the selective railroad companies were today's more notable initiations:

• JMP Securities started American Home Mortgage (NYSE: AHM) with a Market Perform frating citing the challenging mortgage market.

• UBS started MasterCard (NYSE: MA) with a Buy and doesn't believe margin upside is fully reflected in the stock's valuation.

• Morgan Stanley initiated five railroad companies: Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP) and Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE: NSC) with Overweight ratings and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI), Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (NYSE: CNQ) and CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) with Equal Weight ratings.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Ceradyne, Inc (NASDAQ: CRDN) was initiated with a Neutral rating at First Albany.

• United Therapeutics Corp (NASDAQ: UTHR) was started with a Buy rating and $81 target at Citigroup.

• Goldman Sachs initiated shares of Aruba Networks, Inc (NASDAQ: ARUN) with a Neutral rating and $16.50 target.

• Saks Inc (NYSE: SKS) was started at Bear Stearns with a Peer Perform rating.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).