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.

"France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) -- my top pick for 2009 -- is one the world's best-managed telecom companies," says global expert Nick Lanyi in his income-focused advisory service, High-Yield International.

Lanyi states, "The dominant provider of wireline phone service in France, FTE also is the leading wireless provider in the country and a major wireless and broadband-Internet provider throughout Europe.

"About 40% of the company's profits come from outside of France, including exposure to emerging markets with excellent long-term growth potential, including Poland and several African countries.

"FTE has invested heavily in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and its leadership in this area -- 5.4 million customers in France -- has given it a foot in the door in many homes, allowing the company to generate strong sales growth for its high-speed Internet services. FTE has relatively strong profit margins and has succeeded in cutting costs in recent years.

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.

"Like the U.S., Canada is looking to big infrastructure plans," says Roger Conrad. In The Canadian Edge, he looks to Bird Construction Income Fund (OTC: BIRDF) as his top pick for 2009.

The Canadian income stock specialist explains, "The U.S. isn't the only country about to pour billions into infrastructure; Canada is also making a big move. And Bird Construction will be a prime beneficiary of this infrastructure spending.

"Bird has been a dominant player in building design and construction services for more than 85 years. Today, the company literally has its hands in every province, supporting projects for everything from oil sands mining to school construction.

"Third quarter 2008 revenue surged 31.5%, pushing nine-month growth to 48.3% as earnings per share more than doubled from 2007 levels.

"Meanwhile, order backlog -- the best predictor of future growth -- rose to better than $1.2 billion (Canadian), up from $821 million a year ago and $969 million at the beginning of 2008.

This morning I had a pleasant conversation with Brian Begley, Vice President, Investor relations for Atlas Energy Resources (NYSE: ATN), a gas exploration company set up as a Limited Liability Company. Although it is an LLC it operates similar to a Master Lease Partnership (MLP); according to their website: ATN pays cash distributions each quarter, which represent a return of invested capital to each common unit-holder. Therefore, these distributions are tax-deferred until the units are sold or the unit-holder's basis goes below zero, whichever occurs first.

In English this means that if you were to invest $10,000 in the shares you would not pay taxes until you sell the shares or get back in excess of the $10,000 and only pay taxes on the overage.

Brian gets high marks for being very straight forward in answering all of my questions. He was upbeat about the company as you would expect but I do not think he was sugar coating anything nor was he ever evasive and I asked some very direct questions. I have to give credit for my initial attraction to this stock to the Motley Fools and their story 5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Atlas Energy

The 5-Stars refers to the sites "Caps" rating system by participants that vote for the stocks they favor. A majority of the stock pickers on this site believe there is a high probability the stock will be a winner. I was drawn to it for more practical reasons then looking for ratings systems or analysts calls. The stock has been paying about a 20% yield and that's some serious cash even if it goes nowhere.

"Weakness in commodities suggests a screaming sign of an overreaction; it's time to take another look at a high-quality, high-yielding commodity stocks such as Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU)," says global investing expert Nick Lanyi.

In his High Yield International, he says, "With mines in Mexico and Peru, Southern Copper ranks #1 in total copper reserves of any publicly traded company, making it almost a pure play on a rebound in the metal's price." Here's his contrarian outlook.

"Southern Copper has enough reserves to continue its current rate of production for the next 80 years without a single expansion or acquisition.

"With copper prices falling, the firm's earnings are taking a hit -- and the dividend has recently been cut. Now that this cut has already been factored into the shares, I think it's a better time to look at the stock than just a few weeks ago.

"Based on 2008 dividends, the stock yields 12.7% at the current price. Even if the dividend comes down more, I look for a yield of 8-9% over the next 12 months.

"Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE), a major player in the midstream energy sector, is a cash-producing machine," says value investor Nathan Slaughter.

The editor of Half-Priced Stocks explains, "Even more promising, those who know the company best -- the CEO and one of its co-funders -- have been voting with their wallets lately." here's his review of the income holding.

"The company -- a master limited partnership (MLP) -- owns over 17,000 miles of natural gas pipelines in several states, including the largest network serving the prolific gas basins of Texas.

MLPs come in two classes: general partner and limited partner. The general partner (GP) typically handles all of the day-to-day operations and in return gets a cut of the distributions that are dished out to the limited partners (LP).

"In this case, the General Partner is Energy Transfer Equity, our recommendation, which should not be confused with the Liimted Partner -- Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP).

"Energy Transfer Equity owns all the General Partner interests -- as well as 62.5 million LP units (46%) of ETP. All of which is a convoluted way of saying that ETE unitholders can expect to be showered with cash.

Much has been written about the trouble General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Financial Services division is having in the current global crises centered on high-risk leveraged loans and multi-leveled derivatives. It is true the company is seeing its share of the pain, and truth be told, I do not think anyone actually knows how deep the total pain will be. Today, GE announced a December 2, 2008 conference call to enlighten investors.

GE is also being affected by slowdowns in the aircraft industry as everyone defers large capital expenditures.

About six weeks ago, after my pal Warren offered to prop up GE with a $3 billion dollar loan with warrant rights and the stock dipped still further, I posted Chasing Value: General Electric is screaming to me! and I was a buyer. The stock then dropped another 35% through this week (brilliant timing), so while I jumped in too early I have to believe it is even a bigger bargain and I will buy more.

If you cringe every time you hear about GE's financial sector woes, then you should smile every time you hear someone chime in about the need for infrastructure projects. Projects that need to get done and projects that would be money wisely spent with long-term benefits. Re-think new stimulus package? Push infrastructure!

"Annaly Capital (NYSE: NLY) is in the sweet spot," says Steve Sjuggerud in Daily Wealth. He says, "It borrows money at a low interest rate and invests it at a higher rate -- and earns the 'spread'."

"The cost of money is historically low, and it's headed lower. Meanwhile, relative to the cost of money, the return on money is higher than it's ever been.

"The ultimate way trade on this historic discrepancy, for high-returns with very low risk, is through shares of companies like Annaly, which is now s now paying a 16% dividend.

"In the latest-reported quarter, the company borrowed money at 3.5%. (The credit markets have calmed down a bit, so its cost of borrowing should be even lower next quarter.)

"It invests the money in government-guaranteed bonds. You remember how the Treasury bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? It wiped out shareholders. But it explicitly guaranteed the bonds.

"In the latest-reported quarter, Annaly earned 5.6% interest on these risk-free bonds. Therefore, it earned a 2.1% spread. If the company uses seven times leverage, a 2.1% spread means a 14.7% return on its money.

"Analysts estimate the company will earn $2.50 per share next year. It pays out essentially all of its earnings in dividends. So that'll be a dividend yield of about 19%. This is ridiculous. An opportunity like this only appears during market turmoil like we're experiencing now.

"This is a historic moment. The difference between the cost of money and the return on money relative to that cost is at the most extreme levels I've seen in my career. Take advantage, and buy stocks like Annaly today."

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a daily look at the latest market commentary and favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

"Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber (NYSE: PCL), the nation's largest private landowner with more than eight million acres, has caught our eye," says Bill Martin.

In his BullMarket.com advisory, he explains, "Earnings have been stunted in recent quarters by the housing slump, but the company sports a strong balance sheet and an asset base that thanks to nature only gets larger and more valuable as time goes by."

"Plum Creek, which operates as a real estate investment trust, reported surprisingly solid Q3 profit. It posted net income of $69 million, or 40 cents per share, for the quarter ended September 30th, compared with a profit of $59 million, or 34 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.

"In the 2007 quarter, fire losses in Montana forced the company to report a $4 million non-cash expense, or two cents per share, related to fire losses experienced in Montana.

"The company's EPS results topped the expectations of Wall Street analysts by a penny a share. Revenue grew to $414 million, up 2% from $407 million last year. The sales results were a bit short of the consensus of $419.8 million.

"For more than 180 years, Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) has served the world's most dynamic and demanding marketplace: metropolitan New York," notes Dennis Slothower in his Stealth Stocks newsletter. Here, he explains why ConEd is his "stock of the month."

"Con Edison, our latest 'stockj of the month' provides electric service to about 3.2 million customers and gas service to approximately 1.1 million customers in New York City and Westchester County.

"It also provides electric service to 300,000 customers in southeastern New York and adjacent areas of northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

"Con Edison's competitive energy businesses participate in segments of the electricity industry that are less comprehensively regulated than our regulated businesses.

"These segments include the operation of electric generation facilities, trading of electricity and fuel, sales of electricity to wholesale and retail customers, and sales of certain energy-related goods and services.

"I can't tell you how tough it is to find and recommend a company based on my strict selection criteria. I have never seen so many stocks in my universe in steep down trends. While there are some good companies paying high dividends, their stocks are in a free fall.

"Con Edison is a strong utility company that I feel confident will continue to pay a nice fat dividend. The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond is yielding about 4%, while Con Ed's dividend is yielding 5.3%. We get a good combination in Con Ed: a high yield and possible increase in the stock price."

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a daily look at the latest market commentary and favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

"In bear markets, a traditional safe haven for investors has been to seek out stocks with high dividend yields and ideally the potential for share-price appreciation," notes Bill Martin.

In his exceptional trading and investing service, BullMarket.com, he notes, "One of our favorites for income is Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE: HPT), a real estate investment trust, which offers an 8.5% yield.

"Hospitality Properties Trust invests in hotels and travel centers, the latter being otherwise known as truck stops. If it doesn't sound very glamorous, this REIT nonetheless currently pays a $3.08 a share annual dividend, good for a pre-tax 8.5% yield with the stock trading in the mid-$30s range.

"It buys hotels principally for income and secondarily for appreciation potential. All of its properties are run under long-term combination agreements that usually require the operators to pay the company minimum returns or rent plus a share of the increased cash flows realized over time.

"It doesn't favor any one hotel brand, operating under such names as Hyatt Place, Spring Hill Suites, Marriott Residence Inn, Radisson, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, and Courtyard hotels.

It's foolish to get too excited about short term success unless you are a rapid fire trader. However, the first six weeks of 2008 have been dismal, so any success is a sigh of relief. I enjoy writing for BloggingStocks, in part because of the dialogue it allows, making it a good sounding board for things I am considering in my investment world.

'Mr. Noital' is one who keeps me sharp and he recently reminded me about Precision Drilling Services TR (NYSE: PDS), a stock I recommended two months ago, so he must like it too and perhaps bought a few shares.

In December, Canada's largest drilling contractor with a fleet of 240 service rigs was $15.47 per share, but last Friday it closed at $19.12, for a nice bounce of 24%. This when the market is down over 8% and almost nothing is looking very promising. When I first called PDS to readers' attention, it had a price to earnings ratio (P/E) near 5 and a dividend yield over 10%. The stock's appreciation has raised the P/E to 6.26 and the yield declined to 7.9% -- still very generous.

I have no crystal ball so predictions are hard to come by, but a closer look at PDS is worth while and you might like what you see. Of course comments are welcome.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the design and research principal for an architecture & planning firm. Disclosure: I do own shares of PDS.

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.

When I posted Chasing Value: Newcastle's 21.9% yield too good to be true?, I said that the metrics don't really matter as long as Newcastle Investment Corp (NYSE: NCT) stays open for business and keeps paying that dividend!

Today came the announcement that NCT will be distributing $0.72 per share for the fourth quarter, on January 30, 2008, to shareholders of record on December 31. This represents a 20% dividend yield -- not too shabby, but a little lower based on today's price, hovering around $14.00. When I first posted, the stock was 10% lower and yield was 10% higher.

You read that correctly, Newcastle Investment Corp (NYSE: NCT) a REIT, is currently paying around $2.88 per share dividend, that equates to a yield of 21.9% based on yesterday's closing price of $13.15 according to AOL Money & Finance data. We all know the "truism" that if something sounds to good to be true... it usually is. So why am I crazy enough to even consider such a thing? Believe me, I have been asking myself that question over the last five months or so that I have been watching this stock.

Newcastle first came to my attention through a Smart Money story written by James B. Stewart many months ago. He was discussing three stocks that he thought were worth the risk and had bought into all three. One of them was the now bankrupt American Home Mortgage (AHM) -- need I say more? The second was NCT and the third escapes my memory. Bankruptcy tends to put a damper on my investment psyche, so I left this idea alone until last month when NCT popped up on my radar screen again.

I do not remember what I was reading at the time but I started to take a closer look and found that NCT was very well diversified into all classes of real estate, with only 10% of the portfolio being in residential properties. Looking at some of the traditional metrics: the P/E is around 10, the P/S 1.3, the P/B 0.74 and the PEG ratio is listed at 0.15. All these numbers are SCREAMING VALUE very loudly. So what's the problem?

"CenterPlate (NYSE: CVP) keeps it profitable by keeping it simple," says Neil George. "And how much simpler can wer get than a hot dog vendor?"

The senior editor of Personal Finance explains, "When it comes down to making ongoing judgments based on knowing as much as we can about particular industries, markets and businesses. And that level of our understanding gets significantly better when the business is basic."

For example, he notes, when we examine a defense avionics company or a bioengineering operation, we're going to have to stretch a bit. But, he suggests, when we get to look at a company selling hot dogs, it doesn't take a collection of engineering degrees to get a good handle on what's what and why we should buy or sell.

And, says George, hot dogs, soda and beer is where Centerplate lives. The company owns and runs the concession stands in 130 major sports parks and entertainment and convention centers from coast to coast.

The advisor explains, "Although some warn that people will stop going out if the economy heads south, the fact is the really golden years for entertainment come during economic tough times. They may not go on big vacations or splurge on big-ticket items, but a day at a park or a night at a concert is always welcome."

"The company doesn't rely on home runs," says the advisor. Instead, he contends, it hits singles and doubles year-in and year-out, with revenues consistently gaining by more than 5%.

Says George, "This may sound anemic compared to some whizbang tech companies, but it's fine by us. We'll take it and the 10% dividend, giving us an average annual return for the past several years of more than 12%. Buy Centerplate under 20."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com features the latest stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.