The Down-and-Dirty Roundup of the Zacks Top 10

Lately, in a frenzy of blogging and action, I've reviewed the Zacks Top 10 stocks for 2008. I heartily suggest that you pore over each post, considering I spent hours hunting and gathering solid investment information in the wilds of the interweb, and spent seconds, sometimes minutes, to come up with the occasional comment or observation.

I could've spent that time much more productively, say, playing better Scrabulous.

But if you choose to ignore that suggestion, this is the post for you!

Without further ado, here's the quick, down-and-dirty roundup of my personal take on the Zacks Top 10 for 2008.

ALB - Albemarle manufactures flame retardants, oil-refining chemicals, and ibuprofen. ALB has solid fundamentals with the added upside bonus of rumors that BASF will bid for Albemarle.

AMX - America Movil is Mexico and South America's largest wireless service provider. AMX is expanding throughout Brazil, while at the same time expanding its margins.

CCE - Coca-Cola Enterprises is a bottler, and is Dow component Coca-Cola's bitch.

CELG - Celgene is the biopharmaceutical manufacturer of Thalomid and Revlimid. Recent negative news regarding Revlimid's efficacy have undermined the Zacks thesis prompting the inclusion of CELG into its Top 10 for 2008.

EMN - Eastman Chemical is the world's largest producer of polyethylene terephthalate and the world's second-largest producer of acetate tow. Acetate tow is used more and more in cigarette filters. The Chinese (and Europeans, too) still love a drag or two.

FLO - Flowers Foods bakes in the South. My original post makes it a bit more complicated than that. The baked goods business is a tough competitive environment with fickle consumers. Sounds just yummy for my investment dollar.

GME - GameStop is a video game seller and reseller. GME dominates its market and offers excellent fundamentals and growth. And shares are on sale like HD-DVDs, but with much better prospects.

HNP - Huaneng Power International is the largest independent electricity producer in China. My take is HNP has many attractive attributes: Low PEG; Beaten-down share price that looks like it may have bottomed out; Generous dividend approaching 8%; Goldman-endorsed top call on coal prices; and the continued growth of China after a significant but healthy market correction.

LDK - LDK Solar manufacturers photovoltaic cells in China. LDK could be a great investment, especially a short-term one, but I'm not convinced its value and growth combo fits with the Zacks Top 10 thesis of buy, hold for a year, and forget.

RIG - Transocean is the best-of-breed deep-water oil rig contractor.

Can you tell that I'm not sold on the idea of buying all ten of these stocks, closing my eyes, holding them for a year, and seeing what is there? I like the idea in theory, but in practice, I'd rather spend a little extra effort to 1. filter out the lesser picks, and 2. time some purchases when the market is offering me a sale price.

So, let's say I want to put together a diversified portfolio, following the spirit behind the Zacks Top 10 list.

Right off, I would exclude CCE and CELG.

Next, I would place EMN, FLO, and LDK in a watch list. These are my second-tier picks that would get interesting at a significant discount to current share prices.

I am left with five intriguing choices: ALB, AMX, GME, HNP, and RIG.

These are the stocks I want in my portfolio. (I already have shares of ALB bought at $37.15)