"My latest 'Special Alert' recommendation could be called an 'Are you Crazy?' pick; despite the high risk, I believe National bank of Greece (NBG) could double before the end of 2011," says global stock specialist Nicholas Vardy.

The editor of The Global Bull Market Alert explains, "Ratings agency Fitch just recently cut the long-term ratings of the National Bank of Greece to BB+ from BBB- while it maintained a 'negative outlook' for its prospects.

"Nevertheless, here's why I think Fitch and the other naysayers are wrong... and why National Bank of Greece will be a big winner for patient investors.

"I love going to health care conferences, where companies often reveal new technologies, groundbreaking drugs, or novel ways of attacking diseases," says Marc Lichtenfeld.

The contributing editor to Investment U explains, "Here's a review of four interesting presentations I recently saw at LifeTech Capital's small-cap health care conference in Miami: Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO), Nabi Pharmaceuticals (NABI), NeoStem (NBS), and Oculus Innovative Sciences (OCLS).

Over at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, there's an article featuring Sirius XM Radio (SIRI). An analyst from Miller Tabak offered positive comments on the company, and believes the shares are a buy and that they could reach $1.25 within the next twelve months.

I don't know. This one just seems too risky. Don't you get the feeling that, once you buy in, the stock is going to fall precipitously? It's had a decent run, according to the one-year chart. In fact, the company is trading around the $1 level as I write this during the afternoon session. Know what the 52-week low is? Try a paltry 37 cents.

Not long ago, I wrote about THQ (THQI) and its possible value as a speculative play. Well, so far, that idea hasn't worked out too well. At the time of my piece, the stock was trading around the $6.50 level. This past Friday, it closed at $4.10, seven pennies above the 52-week low. Indeed, it's looking very grim for the video-game publisher.

It appeared as if the fundamentals were improving, but it recently suffered a setback. About the middle of last month, Mark Fightmaster covered the details of the company's obligation to lower its outlook for the next fiscal year. The market doesn't like it when this sort of thing occurs.

Curis (NASDAQ: CRIS) is a speculative stock -- no approved product and no revenue -- that, in former markets, would sell for $10 - $12. It is now around a buck and a half, after doubling in the past few months.

CRIS focuses on cancer treatments, and is partnered with Genentech/Roche. It has a new therapy for basal cell carcinoma in mid-stage trials. The results appear very promising. In fact, they are so promising that Genentech is treating this as the last trial needed before seeking FDA approval.

This stock is a potential 10- to 20-bagger with an FDA approval in 2011 or so. And the company is on the verge of licensing a new molecule that could be a big catalyst for the stock in the short term.

Your best strategy for life-changing profits?

Buy CRIS now. (In the interest of full disclosure, I own a lot of CRIS.)

Next: Biotech Stock #5

The latest edition of Motor Trend magazine this month notes that Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) decided not to take the governments money because the family would have had to forego much of its income under the terms of the plan until they can turn the company around and pay back the loans.

They do not want to do that, and although they lost almost $3 billion in the most recent quarter, they are going to try and tough it out. The mags monthly notes comment that Ford is in better shape than General Motors (NYSE: GM) or Chrysler which did take bail out money having about $19 billion of liquidity remaining.

"If there's one sector that stands to benefit handsomely from a further slide in oil or, at least, a moderation in crude's rally: the airlines," explains energy sector expert Elliott Gue.

In The Energy Strategist, he says, "Airlines may make a terrible long-term investment but can be an outstanding short-term trade." Here he looks at Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and, for the even more speculatively-inclined, US Airways (NYSE: LCC).

"Some investors will rightfully cringe from any mention of this sector; after all, the airlines have consistently lost money throughout their post-deregulation history.

"Most of the majors have declared bankruptcy on multiple occasions since that time. However, we've traded the airlines on a few occasions; we took some triple-digit percentage gains in the airlines back in 2005.

"The airlines' leverage to oil prices is well known. Expectations are so low, in fact, that several major air carriers actually managed to beat consensus expectations in the second quarter.

"And although sentiment is already at rock-bottom, there's a real basis for cautious optimism. First, if I'm right about oil, fuel costs won't rise appreciably in the third quarter. This huge headwind is dissipating.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite aggressive idea for 2008 is NutraCea (NASDAQ: NTRZ), a low-priced, speculative issue," says Tom Bishop, editor of BI Research.

"Rice is the most consumed food on the planet and NutraCea has found a way to process rice bran -- 60 million tons of which comes off the rice kernel during the milling process worldwide -- into an extraordinarily nutritious food ingredient/nutraceutical that is also loaded with more than 100 antioxidants.

"The milling process normally triggers an enzyme that makes rice bran quickly (within hours) go rancid and thus it is for the most part discarded the world over. So rice mills will gladly allow NutraCea to build one of its stabilization facilities on site.