It's often said that the best time to buy stocks is when everyone else is selling -- or sitting on the sidelines. That's when you get the best deals. So does that make stocks a good investment for you today?

No question, Americans are still wary of the stock market. The S&P 500 has remained within a narrow range for more than a year. Not surprising given the U.S. high unemployment rate and the fall in values of homes. On top of that, the world is jittery over the debt crisis in Europe, the possibility of inflation in China (even though China so far has not raised interest rates), and skirmishes taking place between North and South Korea. And then there are well-known economists such as Gary Shilling and David Rosenberg who are sounding alarm bells that now is not the time to invest in stocks.

Say you have $20,000 to $100,000 to invest. You can put it in stocks, hope to make a 10% return over time, and if the market moves up, you could walk away with an extra $2,000 to $10,000 before taxes. Or, you could take that same investment, and put it into something that could generate far greater returns.

James Altucher, Managing Director of Formula Capital, says that a better way to reap big returns is to exploit your employer. (See video.)

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering near 11,000, you may be persuaded that times are getting better and that there is money to be made by investing in stocks. James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital, believes that stocks are going up. But even so, he says there are better ways to make money.

His suggestion: In the video below, he argues that if you have $20,000 to $100,000 to invest, put your money into something that will make a big change in your life, instead of in stocks. If you are a photographer, for example, buy a top of the line camera. The payoff in producing better photographs should help your photography business far more than putting $3,000 in stocks.

After selling off its three month lows of $1,156.90 per ounce, prices of gold have been coming back. Driving the yellow bullion higher is the euro, which is strengthening against the U.S. dollar, and rising prices of oil and even stocks.

But as gold comes back off its lows, is it time for investors to get in? If stocks continue to rise, it seems that gold could fall further.

We turned to James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital to find out.

James Altucher, a managing partner at Formula Capital as well as a regular contributor to DailyFinance, says the S&P 500 is going to 1500. He argues that now is the time for investors buy stocks. Appearing on CNBC's Squawk Box Tuesday morning with economist Nouriel Roubini, Altucher argued that the economy is improving and stocks are cheap trading at about 10 times earnings (compared to the historical average of 15 times earnings). As a result, he says that investing in stocks now makes sense.

James Altucher is a financial journalist for The Wall Street Journal and founder of Stockpickr.com. His articles cover every angle of the market; he also stars in feature videos with other financial luminaries. He is the author of Trade Like a Hedge Fund, Trade Like Warren Buffett, SuperCa$h, and The Forever Portfolio.

He has taken a controversial path lately with numerous articles in the New York Post and Huffington Post. Some articles include: "Global Warming Is a Myth," "Should Insider Trading Be Made Legal?" "School of Hard Cash," "The Internet Is Dead (as an Investment)," and "5 Myths the Recession Taught Us."

Rumors of a new addition to the James Altucher library have entered the blogosphere, so I met with James to discuss a possible new book and the response from his recent aggressive views on finance and the stock market.

Barron's featured a cover story (subscription required) on the performance of Jim Cramer's stock picks essentially classified Cramer as one big short opportunity. Understandably, the brains at TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) were offended and came back strong.

James Altucher wrote a powerful article which appeared on TheStreet.com Wednesday. This article managed to destroy Barron's anti-Cramer arguments, in my opinion. Through legitimate backtesting (following Cramer's recommendations -- wait 5-10 days, etc.), Altucher found that Cramer actually managed to outperform the market.

However, I had one issue with Altucher's article. While he was perfectly justified in disputing their use of the Friday close in their performance tracking, I think the one month holding period is way too short for many of Barron's ideas to materialize. Unlike Cramer, they are a much more long-term oriented crowd focused primarily on valuation. As a result, I'd argue a one-year holding period makes much more sense for creating their track record.

What should you do? Don't get involved in these disputes! You should read Barron's and watch Cramer! Anything you can do to help bring more ideas to your radar screen for further research is a worthwhile use of time in this game.

On an online video on TheStreet.com this morning, James Altucher, founder of Stockpickr.com, and Jim Cramer reviewed Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). What was funny was that this brief two-minute discussion was filmed outdoors and had sort of a "Candid Camera" on-the-street feel. Plus, it was really made up of Cramer asking Altucher what he thought rather than the other way around.

Cramer was less enthusiastic on Time Warner than he had been in the past, but Altucher said at today's lower stock price, it is seems cheap. Altucher discussed the AOL ad growth model not being as great as originally hoped, but noted that AOL on a standalone basis could be worth $30 billion.

Cramer said Wall Street wasn't happy, but Altucher said the stock purchase by Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons last week was a solid vote. As far as the buyback, TWX bought back enough stock that it was like buying an entire AOL. On cable subscriber growth, it sounded a lot like Altucher thought there could be some organic subscriber growth left. To top it off, Altucher said $25 could be a target and that 2008 and 2009 could be great years.

We'll see if this comes to pass and if AOL turns into a standalone company. Recently I laid out a path that I think the company can take to make it a quasi-standalone company again. Frankly it would be ludicrous to pick this apart after such an ugly day in the market yesterday and with such a large gap down this morning.

The good news is that if you are into buying strong companies on weak days, Time Warner may be worth a look. It was down less than the market overall yesterday and shares are still above the post-earnings lows of last week.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the development of the hedge fund clone concept being created by big Wall Street firms. These clones basically try to earn the returns of hedge funds without paying the normal 2/20 fee structure.

For those unfamiliar with it, 2/20 refers to an annual "management fee" of 2% and a performance ("incentive") fee of 20%. When compared to any index fund, and even mutual funds, these fees seem ridiculous. However, there are many funds in the hedge fund industry that do in fact justify these fees.

The goal of these funds is basically to mirror the hedge fund index, or a group of hedge funds pooled together to be more diversified than investing in a single hedge fund. While this strategy has its benefits in reducing volatility and the chance of a blow-up, it also has its downsides. According to my friend James Altucher, fund of funds manager and president of StockPickr.com:

"Hedge fund clones are fine because they are all mediocre (i.e., like the average hedge fund). The real reason to go into hedge funds is to find the next SAC."

Basically, the returns of the "clones" will not match the returns of the best and brightest hedge funds on the street, such as SAC, Moore, or Tudor.

While this seems like an interesting proposition, the minimum investments remain very high at this point so the concept doesn't really bring much to the table for investors who are not accredited. As the WSJ said, this seems like another investment for the yacht-club set.

Billed as a sort of Myspace for investors, stockpickr.com is a great way to view other investors portfolios, or set up your own list of picks to find other investors with similar investment strategies. You can even view the portfolios of investment icons like Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Mario Gabelli. The site was created by TheStreet.com columnist James Altucher, who is also the author of several investing books.

The site can be a great way to look for stocks that are similar to what you own. For example, if you are bullish on an obscure tech company, you could find out what other holders of the same stock tend to have in their portfolios. Check it out here.