Many investors often look to the larger oil and gas developers for a safe investment, and in a certain sense these types of companies are perhaps one of your more safe investments. Energy after all is always a need. There are, however, companies on the verge that may make better investments as they move forward with production and development plans. While some may look left at these more main-stream players, looking right for those companies that may be in the right place at the right time may be a bit more profitable. Care needs to be taken and research done, but if one picks wisely, profit will be there.

American Oil & Gas Inc., an oil and gas exploration company, works to explore and develop crude oil and natural gas deposits primarily in Colorado and Wyoming. The company holds natural gas interests through its American Tower Inc. subsidiary but is generally

by guest author: Adam Lass http://taipanpublishinggroup.com

Impressed by yesterday’s breakout? No, not really! In fact, I think you should short the pants off it.

I may as well start the column with the question everyone is asking me.

“If everything is as bad as you guys say, if the shoots are all shriveling, if banks are all screwed, if the technicals are calling for a whopping breakdown, why is the Dow breaking out?”

Are things really better all around than your erstwhile bearish correspondents have been telling you?

The simple answer is “no, it’s not.” And also, “no, they’re not.”

Facts vs. Slogans

Let’s address that second denial first.

As much as the cheerleading squad might wish to muddle the issues, the basic facts of the matter remain quite clear. Every honest economist concedes that the recession will continue through the rest of 2009 and into 2010.

We have become so numb to the word recession that many investors …

By Guest Author: Adam Lass (www.taipanpublishinggroup.com)

Anyone who has ever flown on most any commercial airline is familiar with this scenario: Your plane is supposed to depart in the next few minutes. The big board says the flight is on time. The lady behind the counter is all smiles.

But you haven’t actually boarded or anything. In fact, as you squint out the window, you can see that there is no plane available to board, a fact that the oblivious clerk seems unable or unwilling to acknowledge.

Thirty minutes after your takeoff slot has come and gone, the ubiquitous screens that decorate the departure lounge’s walls suddenly blur, flicker and light up with the announcement that some flights may be delayed… by 10 minutes.

Airlines Crash and Burn

I’ve always wondered: Is this just wishful thinking? “Maybe pixies will make a plane appear!” Or more probably, “Maybe if we say nothing, no one will complain.”

When …

Following the energy companies through their earnings for a number of years now it as become apparent to me that while it is extremely difficult to predict earnings going into the future, nobody even does a mediocre job at this for a number of energy companies.  This is very understandable for small capitalization companies as well as refiners as well as exploration and production companies because their mid-quarter transparency is not very high for the most part.  This shouldn’t be true many of the majors integrated companies, and it definitely is not true for companies such as Noble Corp. [NE: 30.21, 0.00 (0.00%)], one of the three largest deepwater drilling companies.  The actions of analysts before and after the earnings release and conference call continue to confuse me, especially when you consider that Noble’s revenues come from

Anybody listening to the markets today has likely heard “long-term horizon” more than once or twice. For the most part, long term is what most investors are planning for as they wait for a recovery to begin. With this in mind, thinking about companies that have a longer lead time to market may be a wise idea. The investment may appear less then wise at this point in time, but down the road it may become a play that turns profitable for those that got ahead of the curve.

Tamm Oil & Gas Corp., a development stage oil sand exploration and development company, works to discover and develop oil sand leases primarily in Canada. The company is currently working in the acquisition phase of its exploration process with several larger leases either signed for geological testing or in process.

Although the company is in the initial stages of its exploration program,