As you may have heard, Jerry Yang has been sacked by the Board of Directors at Yahoo from his position as CEO. Ok so maybe the official verdict is that he "stepped down". Regardless, he hurt Yahoo more than he helped. During his 18 month run as CEO, he turned down a lucrative Microsoft bid for $32 per share, and could not forge a deal with Google. Shares of Yahoo now languish at around $10, struggling to stay in double digits.

View the full YHOO chart at Wikinvest

So what now? Yahoo has been and remains the most heavily trafficked online portal with over 142 million unique visitors in October 2008 according to comScore. That is 2 million more unique visitors than Google. On average, Yahoo visitors spend just under 5 hours every month on Yahoo. Google on the other hand cannot hold on to their visitors for more than an hour. An average Yahoo visitor browses more than twice as many pages on Yahoo than the average Google audience does on Google. Finally, Yahoo users spend 4 times the amount of minutes per visit than the average Google user. Yahoo even has higher loyalty among their users with more repeat visits than Google and ranks #1 on Alexa (an internet domain ranking service) and comScore.

So why is Google eating Yahoo's lunch. What makes Google so much better? Well, for one, technology. Google's search has more muscle than Yahoo's. Having said that, Google is not considered a media property. It is primarily a search engine and a darn good one at that. But once people find what they need, they leave. On the other hand, while Yahoo's search algorithm leaves much to be desired, it has evolved into a full fledged media giant. According to Chrysler, a home-page buy on Yahoo is worth 75 TV ratings points -- the equivalent of four 30-second spots in a hit prime-time show.

Lets consider some of Yahoo's properties and the clout they have in the market place.

Yahoo Mail - 47% of the internet audience, followed by 23% each for Microsoft and AOL. Google is a distant 4th with 15% (many users have multiple email accounts so they would be counted under multiple domains). It also has the highest number of average minutes logged by its users and the highest number of average repeat visits.

Yahoo Answers - second only to Wikipedia in the Resources/Reference category.

Yahoo Video - overtook MySpace TV to become the second largest video site behind Google's YouTube in September.

Flickr - ranks third after Facebook and Photobucket, with double the number of unique visitors than its fourth place rival Picasa.

Yahoo Finance - is the top ranked financial research website with total minutes spent on Yahoo Finance is more than twice any of its competitors. Google isn't even a major player here. TechTicker, the video channel on Yahoo Finance, gets 450,000 views a day, comparable to CNBC.

Yahoo Hotjobs - ranks third behind Careerbuilder and Monster.com.

With all this, Yahoo has made a mess of monetizing its properties. According to Advertising Age, Aimee Reker, senior VP-global director of search for MRM Worldwide, believes Yahoo shares are undervalued, noting that not only does Yahoo have scale, it has scale against its own content. Indeed, for all its recent efforts, Yahoo missed the boat on search and social networking, but it remains the dominant player in online display advertising.

Earnings have continued to disappoint at Yahoo. Many talented employees have also deserted the mother-ship. The company has not had any success in forming partnerships with the Facebooks or the AOLs of the world either. Yet, $10 price tag and a market cap of less than $15 billion seems to be a bargain considering that 12% of all time spent on the internet is spent on Yahoo.

With the news of Jerry Yang's departure as CEO, Yahoo may see some life yet. I recommend buying Yahoo at current levels.

-- Faisal Laljee
Full Disclosure: I own GOOG but do not own YHOO, however, my position can change anytime without notice.

Related Stories:

• Bargain Shop with Microsoft
• Media Wars Part 2 of 2: Focus on Content and Easy Digital Distribution
• Online Search and Shop Market - Google Faces Choppy Waters
• Yay for Yahoo!

Jim Rogers, famed author of Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market and Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers, and chairman of Rogers Holdings is still bullish on commodities. The original bull on commodities has long been a staunch believer in commodities including metals, agriculture and energy and has recently launched a verbal offensive against the Federal Reserve Bank and the US Treasury for injecting so much liquidity into the market, which is often followed by higher inflation.

In an interview with Bloomberg on October 24, Jim Rogers reiterated that gold, agriculture and other commodities will continue to go up once the markets settle. Click on the video below to see his full interview.



In an interview with CNBC on October 22, Jim was specially critical of the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Click on the video below to see this interview.



While I am in no position to criticise the Fed, I do believe that the government is trying very hard to prevent this recession by taking drastic steps in the form of lower interest rates, cash infusions, increased money supply and the $700 billion package for banks. Recessions are part of any economy and as such need to be embraced with positive policies that promote job growth and development. Throwing money into the system does indeed cause inflation and only delays the inevitable. In fact, in some cases, it even magnifies the recession.

As far as commodities go, it is time to buy oil, gold and agriculture. It has declined over 50% in 4 months. Gold too, is down 20% from its highs earlier this year, and agricuture stocks have been pounded up to 75%.

For those who don't have access to buy commodities, I will be publishing a list of commodity stocks to start buying soon. Stay tuned ...

-- Faisal Laljee

Recommended Reading:

* A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market
* Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip
* Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market
* Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers

Direxion this week, launched eight ETFs (4 long and 4 short) that are an extension of the previously existing double leveraged Ultra ETF's from ProShares. So while EEV, SSO, SDS, QID, QLD and DUG provide a way for investors to make or lose 200% of the daily performance they track, these new ETF's from Direxion allow investors to make or lose 300% of the daily performance.

These new ETF's include:

• BGU - Large Cap Bull 3X Shares
  
• TNA - Small Cap Bull 3x Shares
  
• ERX - Energy Bull 3x Shares
• FAS - Financial Bull 3x Shares
• BGZ - Large Cap Bear 3x Shares
• TZA - Small Cap Bear 3x Shares
  
• ERY - Energy Bear 3x Shares
• FAZ - Financial Bear 3x Shares
  

So while the market (Russell 2k) was down 2.2% today, BGU was down 6.6% and BGZ was up 6.2%. Needless to say, these ETF's are not for the faint-hearted. They magnify the markets daily performance by 3X, thereby making everyday a rollercoaster ride, in addition to the pre-existing volatility of the current market.

Today, while the Russell 2k ranged from 480.82 - 497.43 (-2.5% to +0.9%), BGU had a range of 39.50 - 44.25 (-0.4% to -11.2%).

Use these leveraged ETF's with some caution. I tend to supplement my long positions with some of the leveraged ETF's, specifically EEV and SSO.

-- Faisal Laljee
Full Disclosure: I own EEV but my position can change anytime without notice.

Related Stories:

• Range-bound Market no longer for Stock pickers
• Invest in Emerging Markets using these New ETFs
• Fancy Exchange Traded Funds for all Appetites

Yes the market is near a bottom. But has the turn around happened? No! These one-day rallies are giving you the opportunity to be nimble and sell some of the stocks you bought yesterday. Of course, if trading is not your thing, sit tight. Like I said before, the market will have bottomed when S&P 500 hits 800 (+/- 2%). Until then, rallies are a trader's dream.

-- Faisal Laljee

The S&P 500 index fell another 8% this week and now sits near 6 year lows. But unlike the last market crash from 2000-02, this market is not expensive. The heavy selling has nothing to do with lofty valuations, instead, a weak economy, slowing growth, and fears of a recession are whats driving investor psychology.

However, I can't emphasize enough how good of an opportunity this is to buy stocks. As Warren Buffet says, "be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful". The S&P 500 index has found the 825 level to be a good level of support looking back over the last 10 years.

View the full SPX chart at Wikinvest

For short-term trading, I've recommended trading SSO and EEV in my previous post titled Range Bound Market no longer for Stock Pickers. However, for long-term investors, the number of stocks I could spew out are endless. Google and Apple have been my obvious favorites but others including retail names Amazon (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY), Saks(SKS) along with energy names like Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Transocean (RIG) are great bargains.

I will try to publish names of some other stocks I really like at these levels, meanwhile, I recommend building positions in some of the above names as S&P approaches 825. Why 825? Because I think that is the bottom. There, I called it. I think 800 is the absolute bottom for S&P 500.

-- Faisal Laljee
Full Disclosure: I am long SSO and AAPL, but my positions can change anytime without notice.