Saj Karsan submits:

Two parties can want to make a deal, but a third party (namely, the government) can prevent that deal from taking place. Such is the case for Advance America (AEA) provider of very short-term loans in Canada and the United States. At the current price, the company looks like a steal.

The company’s P/E is under 5, and while the company trades for $230 million, it has earned over $200 million in the last four years! The company has been able to generate returns on equity in the mid-to-high 20 percents, showing that it’s got an economic moat.

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Jason Nevader submits:

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Ron Rowland submits:

The iShares MSCI Brazil Small Cap Index Fund (EWZS) was launched September 29, 2010 with an objective of capturing Brazil’s small cap stock performance. The underlying MSCI index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure the performance of the bottom 14% (by market cap) of equities listed in Brazil.

According to the EWZS fact sheet (pdf), there are 79 constituents in the underlying index and the fund currently holds 78 of them. The largest holdings include Diagnosticos da America 6.7%, TOTVS 4.8%, Anhanguera Educacional 4.3%, Cia Hering 4.0%, and CETIP SA-Balcao Organizado 3.8%.

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Rockford Coscia submits:

I wanted to weigh in on the Biodel (BIOD) PDUFA for their rapid-acting insulin formulation, Linjeta. Many investigations have taken place here, here, and here (and my first article offered a play that has returned over 50% since July here), but I thought it would be worthwhile to provide a summary of what’s at stake.

Linjeta, to provide a little background, is a new formulation of rapid-acting prandial (meal-time) insulin. It is basically regular insulin that has been treated with EDTA to break the hexameric insulin into three dimers. The remaining dimers are treated with citric acid in order to break the dimers into monomers. What results is an insulin that goes to work faster (it doesn’t have to break down in the body from hexamer to monomer) and is supposed to more closely mimic the body’s natural insulin response.

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Several times a week, Seeking Alpha’s Jason Aycock asks money managers about their single highest-conviction position – what they would own (or short) if they could choose just one stock or ETF.

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Andrew Shapiro is founder, president and portfolio manager of Lawndale Capital Management, an RIA based in Mill Valley, Calif., that manages activist hedge funds focused on small and micro-cap companies. Prior to founding Lawndale in 1992, he managed the workout and restructuring of high-yield bonds, distressed equities and risk arbitrage securities for First City Capital.

If you could only hold one stock position in your portfolio (long or short), what would it be?

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