If they have not issued a financial statement, that's a company to stay away from. You can't do any evaluation without looking at assets and revenues.

These few factors will keep most people out of trouble and allow them to look at many exciting opportunities.

Any area where institutions are not involved is great for individuals. When the institutions aren't involved, the price is less conditioned on market movements and more based on the company's fundamentals.

If you look at the universe of the 7,000 or so stocks that are priced this way, most of them you wouldn't want to touch,

Drought likes company. If somebody else is dry in another part of the country, it's always a little bit worrisome. It just can kind of feed on itself and spread. . . . It is something to keep your eye on to see if it persists into the spring.

Our company was definitely looked at very hard; we met a lot of top government officials and held deep conversations.