This post is part of our Money Face-Offs feature. Let us know who you think comes out ahead in this head-to-head match-up, and check out other Money Face-Off posts.

For pretentious film students and pop-culture-savvy hipsters alike, it's a debate as old as the hills of Tatooine ... who is the greatest movie mogul of all time? Is it George Lucas, mastermind behind the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series, or Steven Spielberg, director of such Oscar-nominated fare as E.T., Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan. The pair always come up in conversation next to one another, and they will be forever linked through Raiders of the Lost Ark -- the first Indiana Jones movie -- which Lucas scripted and executive produced, and Spielberg directed.

Let's take a look at the resumes. Lucas assumed the director's chair for four of the six Star Wars movies (the original 1977 film and the three prequels), and American Graffiti, all of which he wrote. His name appears in the production credits of 47 past and upcoming projects (according to IMDB.com), including multiple video-game titles. He's been nominated four times for an Academy Award -- for the direction and the writing of Star Wars (the original) and American Graffiti. Other than a 1992 memorial award, he has never won.

Shares of TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) are up roughly 3% today on higher-than-average volume as merger rumors are surrounding the company. The Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] reported that the company is in talks with E*Trade Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC), supposedly considering a merger.

Should you buy into these rumors? In my opinion, I don't think it makes sense to ever buy a stock simply because the media is circulating buyout, merger, or any other rumors. When considering these situations, you need to step back, study the company, and make sure you're not overpaying for the prospects of the rumor.

Shares of TD Ameritrade sold off hard when the financial sector (as a whole) got hit on rate concerns during the last two months. This trade-off has put the stock at slightly less than 18x earnings. With Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) fetching more than 19x earnings, there seems to be a small valuation discrepancy suggesting TD Ameritrade is undervalued. Why? TD Ameritrade is more profitable, expected to grow faster than Schwab in the next year, and grew more quickly than Schwab in the last several years.

More interestingly, TD Ameritrade is currently trading for less than 16x its earnings guidance for this year and less than 13x estimates for next year's earnings! Shares of Charles Schwab, on the other hand, are fetching more than 17x next year's earnings estimates. This huge forward discount makes no sense, in my opinion, and leads me to believe TD Ameritrade is undervalued, merger or no merger.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Garmin Ltd (GRMN) and E*Trade Financial (ET) top today's upgrade list.

• Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Merrill Lynch on the belief the company will maintain their dominant position in the robust personal navigation devices market through 2008.
• E*Trade Financial Corp. (NYSE:ET) was upgraded at Goldman Sachs to Buy from Neutral. The firm believes shares are oversold following Banc of America's (BAC) announcement of free online trades, as they do not think it will pose a serious competitive threat.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSUN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America, citing the potential turnaround of the company under the new CEO.
• Matrix USA upgraded SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) to Hold from Sell on valuation.
• Deutsche Bank is positive on Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (NYSE:DJ) Factiva acquisition and believes 2007 will be a good year, upgrading the company to Buy from Neutral.

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