optionsXpress Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: OXPS) offers an online retail brokerage platform that provides brokerage services for options, stocks, futures, mutual funds, and fixed-income products investors in the United States and internationally. Recently the company announced strong growth in November metrics.

Daily average revenue trades (DARTs) were 44,500, which was 55% higher than November 2006, and slightly lower than October 2007. Net new customer accounts were 5,300. Ending customer accounts were 258,100, or 27% higher than November 2006, 2% higher than October 2007. Ending client assets were $5.8 billion, which was 25% higher than November 2006, 4% lower than October 2007. Ending margin balances were $200 million, which was 51% higher than November 2006 and 2% higher than October 2007

This strong growth comes at a time when investors can be hard pressed to find any financial stock that has been reporting solid growth. It's important to note that they are much less impacted by deteriorating credit markets than some of their brokerage friends such as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER) What's more, the stock is trading at its 52 week-high. Sporting a PE of 22.60, and more importantly, a PEG of just 0.9, this stock looks like a winner moving forward. Investors who want exposure to financials should take a hard look at optionsXpress.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Author has no position in any stock mentioned as of 12/31207.

In a move that in a backhanded way says "you made the wrong choice," Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) has named competitor Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) as their top short pick for 2008. What makes this interesting is that it follows on the heels of Citi naming Vikram Pandit as CEO. Interesting to note that Pandit was a former longtime Morgan Stanley executive. Maybe this is Morgan's way of telling investors that this was a bad choice for CEO. After all, if anyone should be familiar with him, it's Morgan Stanley.

What bothers me about this choice is that they set a price target of $28. That's less than 15% from where Citi stock is currently trading. That's their top short idea? I guess Morgan Stanley believes that the market is going to be moving up by, I don't know, say 50%. That's the only way I can understand how their "Top Short Idea" is a stock that's going to lose only 15%.

This is another one of those head scratching moments that Wall Street analysts provide us with. Like the recent downgrade of E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) by the brave analysts at Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) after the stock aready moved down by 80%. What do they get paid for?

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock and is long ETFC. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 12/12/07.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is recently down $1.77 to $31.46:

Citi announced that Vikram Pandit will be its new CEO. Buckingham says "Vikram's strength outweigh his weakness." C December 30 straddle was at $2.46. C call option volume of 106,810 contracts compares to put volume of 117,835 contracts. C January option implied volatility of 48 is above its 26-week average of 33 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options:

VIX down .62 to 22.97.

Daily Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

You can't say he didn't try, but Alan Greenspan finally agrees that monetary policy can't be used to safely defuse an asset bubble [subscription required]. In today's Wall Street Journal, Greenspan writes, "After more than a half-century observing numerous price bubbles evolve and deflate, I have reluctantly concluded that bubbles cannot be safely defused by monetary policy or other policy initiatives before the speculative fever breaks on its own." He compares our recent mortgage meltdown to the Dutch Tulip craze of the 17th century and the South Sea Bubble of the 18th century.

He also admits some of the Fed's actions may have helped to fuel this bubble, such as lowering the federal funds rate to 1% in mid-2003 and keeping it there for a while. He things teaser rate ARMs also contributed, but the biggest blame can be placed on the expectation of ever rising prices, which is, of course, what inflates most asset-price bubbles.

Greenspan said he and his colleagues at the Fed believed the threat of corrosive deflation in 2003 after the Internet bubble burst needed the temporary 1% federal-funds rate to fend off that deflationary crisis, but he added, "I did fret that maintaining rates too low too long was problematic." It wasn't until mid-2004 that the Fed started raising rates again but by then the current asset bubble was already inflating and impossible to stop.

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) will continue on its present course as an independent company after BIIB's Board of Directors completed a review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value:

BIIB recently traded at $56.60 in after market trading, below its close of $75.88. BIIB December straddle went out at $6.35. BIIB January option implied volatility of 55 is above its 26-week average of 37 according to Track Data, suggesting options traders expected movement.

Daily Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Nextest Systems Corporation (NASDAQ: NEXT): Buy-out by Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE: TER) brings peaks at $19.64, up from 52-week low of $10.49.

OptionsXpress Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXPS): Broker says it had a big increase in November volume. Shares trade up to $32.50 against 52-week low of $20.78.

EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ: EMKR): Lands deal to provide parts for solar-power systems in Canada. Up to $11.67 from 52-week low of $3.84.

Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES): Price of crude jumps 5% to multi-week high. Shares move up to $82.48 from 52-week low of $45.96.

Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE): Chemical company raises full-year outlook. Trades up to $43.72 from 52-week low of $22.56.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR) recently down $1.45 to $13.19.:

XMSR and SIRI announced on 2/20/07 a merger of equals. XMSR shareholders will receive 4.6 SIRI shares for each XMSR share. The FCC is expected to decide on the merger before the year's end. XMSR December 12.5 straddle is priced at $2.35. XMSR January option implied volatility of 143 is above its 26-week average of 66 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) recently down 21 cents to $3.28:

SIRI December 3 straddle is priced at 50 cents. SIRI January option implied volatility of 97 is above its 26-week average of 63 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Daily Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Further, the move is the largest coordinated international monetary policy action taken since the world's major central banks provided liquidity to ensure proper market function following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States.

The Fed announced Wednesday that it would inject up to $40 billion in reserves into money markets via a new, temporary program called a "term-auction facility." The emergency funds would be made available to banks next week via auction process -- $20 billion each -- on December 17 and December 20. The Fed also said it is setting up lines of credit with the European Central Bank and the Swiss Central Bank that could be used for additional resources.

My fellow Americans...hmm, that's overused....and I am not running for anything. HEY PEOPLE... too rude... To my fellow investors, read carefully: WE ARE NEVER LEAVING IRAQ! There, I said it, it's done.

Don't you wish some of our elected officials could tell it to us straight? We are not going to pull out of Iraq this year, next year, in 10 years or perhaps 100 years. Not unless we are chased out (although some locals are trying). It is true that we may reduce our forces over the next four or five years to a third of what we have there now, but we are not leaving. Since we are not leaving, I would like to see the business plan. Everyone has wanted to see the administration's strategic plan for some time, but a business plan will do.

The United States military never left Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, and has advisors on every continent, just about every place we have ever gone. The only time we've left is when we were kicked out. The Iraqis will not be kicking us out. They need us to prevent an escalation of the civil war. They need our help rebuilding their infrastructure, (which we bombed), and we want to do that!

If you've been paying attention to the stock market and Fed rate cuts this week, you may have noticed that a deadly ice storm has crossed the plains from Kansas to Oklahoma to Missouri. Over a million people have been left without power due to ice felling power lines, and schools across all three states have been closed almost this entire week. In Oklahoma alone, all 77 counties in that state have been declared in a "state of emergency." Not good.

What to do when half of the town is without power and it's right at the freezing mark? Find relatives or friends to visit (and stay the night with), find a nearby hotel and check in (if it has power), or spend all day in retail stores to occupy the kids and keep them from climbing the walls in your powerless home. So, let's bring in the world's largest retailer -- Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). I visit one of the retailer's locations every week to perform research. Could not do this part of Monday and Tuesday of this week, though -- a loss of power caused a local Wal-Mart Supercenter to be completely shut down. See the picture to the right? Ever see a Wal-Mart parking lot that empty?

China and the United States on Wednesday agreed that the relationship between the world's two largest economies is becoming increasingly interdependent but again differed on the pace of Chinese currency reform, as trade talks between the two nations continued in Beijing, The Associated Press reported.

Separately, U.S. officials pronounced as a success a side process Tuesday during which the two sides signed several agreements, including one on food safety, calling for U.S. health inspectors to play a greater role in inspections in China itself, the International Herald Tribune reported.

I was doing some research work and surfing on the great tech blog, TechCrunch, when an article caught my eye. (Actually, I use techmeme to search for important tech stories and came across the aforementioned article -- but, that's not important right now.)

The article was about a $20 million infusion by the Carlyle Group and H.I.G. Ventures in a Southern California-based company named REVShare. Your friend and mine, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), has made a push into Cost-Per-Action (CPA) advertising. CPA advertising is the holy grail for advertisers, because the advertiser only pays when an action he defines (like purchasing a product) occurs. This has long been a mainstay of internet advertising, as it's relatively easy to gauge such metrics. Commission Junction, part of ValueClick, (NASDAQ: VCLK) has been making a living at this for a long time (in relative web years). Television, on the other hand, has always been a slippery bugger.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has always been at the forefront of making purchasing from its ubiquitous website as easy as possible. From the early days of one-click shopping, the retailer has made the process of buying merchandise super easy.

Well, it just got easier for those who want to purchase products but have no desire to pay for them immediately.

The world's largest e-tailer signed an agreement with Bill Me Later Inc. to let customers purchase products and be billed for them at a later date. In an interesting twist, Amazon.com also purchased an equity stake in Bill Me Later as well, although the size of the stake is not known.

With the enormous reach of Amazon.com has, is this payment alternative needed? From an economic standpoint, yes. Any payment avenue Amazon.com offers just makes it that much easier to increase sales to a contingent of customers who want a huge array pf payment options (for better or worse). The Bill Me Later deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008 and should be available as a payment option at Amazon.com shortly thereafter.

Do you like to drive fast Italian cars? If so, you're in luck. In the next few years, you'll probably be able to buy a zippy little Alfa Romeo -- and at a bargain price. Best of all, it will be made right here in the good old USA.

According to The New York Times, Fiat of Italy is considering building a new car factory in the U.S. to produce Alfa Romeo sports cars. Fiat hasn't sold cars here for over a decade, but the falling dollar makes the American market too potentially lucrative to pass up. Fiat believes that locating the factory in the US is the only way it can sell cars here profitably, due to lower labor and transportation costs in North America. The Center for Automotive Research in Michigan recently found that European autoworkers make $10 more an hour than autoworkers in the US.

I've written about Sherwood Investments' offer of $7 per share for Trans World Entertainment (NASDAQ: TWMC) and I've expressed more than a little skepticism.

Now, at least some of the skepticism has been assuaged -- Sherwood has filed a 13-D indicating a 5.48% stake in the company. Should we take the offer more seriously now? Yes. We now have confirmation of Sherwood's ownership of the stock it reported in press releases and an assurance that the company was not trading on the hype its press releases generated. So the ethical worst case scenario has been eliminated.

But questions remain.

Right now, Trans World is a stock trading up about 40% in less than a month on two offers, both of which are contingent on financing.