Golden Profits in Freeport, Juicy Gains in Apple, and a Daring New Short Idea

Of course, each of our remaining stocks is in the money too.

Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL), in fact, has been one of the best performing stocks in the market recently. Our shares are up 51% since we got in eight weeks ago. Move your sell stop up to $45 to protect your profits.

And here¢â‚¬â„¢s a new short for our hedge portfolio: Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Google, of course, is the leading internet search engine and this year¢â‚¬â„¢s most highly-publicized IPO.

The stock began trading at $100 a share on August 19 and has already moved to nearly $150. In my view, investors have short memories.

Everything that caused them to get burned in the technology and internet mania of the 1990s is present in this stock. The company has a high concept but a short history. It has big growth potential but small margins. (Profit margins are just 8.4%). And, most unsettling of all, the stock carries a ridiculous valuation. It sells for 205 times earnings.

The company earned $143 million in the first half. But it has a market cap that tops $40 billion!

Don¢â‚¬â„¢t get me wrong. The internet is here to stay and this technology is still in its infancy. But Google doesn¢â‚¬â„¢t have a lock on the market for search engines. There¢â‚¬â„¢s plenty of competition out there, including world-famous Yahoo.

And even though the company will almost certainly grow in the years ahead, this stock is overdue for a correction that could pull it all the way back to the IPO price ¢â‚¬" or lower.

So let¢â‚¬â„¢s take advantage. Sell short Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) at market and place a buy stop at $175. If you want to play this one more aggressively, take a flier on the Google March $120 puts (GOQ-OD).