First thing that I do is watch BNN every night (dorky, I know but it's worth it). I look for the analysts that cover stocks in oil and gas. Since I have had so much luck with the North Sea (stable governments etc) I have stayed there.
Often these guys will give you a few of their top picks and then I start researching the companies and try to figure out what's going on with them.
My research obviously starts with checking all their press releases on Sedar. Then, I try to find out what makes a company successful when exploring in the North Sea. An example of how I did this was when I was getting my MBA, I actually did a study on Oilexco (a valuation to be exact) and was able to interview many big wigs. They basically told me all the critical success factors for juniors exploring in the North Sea. With that information, I was able to create an 80 page report to predict what their sp would be.
For those of you wondering, there are many analysts that cover companies and you can get their price targets and how they come up with them from emailing the company they work for. Usually it's a receptionist that will email you a copy of their report. An excellent analyst that I have followed for a long time is Fred Kozak from Cannacord (btw, his target for Oilexco is currently 24 by the end of 08). Another really good one is Josef Schachter...his top pick right now is Sterling Resources, followed closely behind by Oilexco.
Oh, and to the comment about the price of oil being the reason for these companies high sp is not valid. A major reason why oil has jumped so much recently is due to the deflation of the US dollar. Also, if you compare the returns of those four companies against the energy index on the tsx you will see that they have out performed almost all energy stocks.
I do a lot of research, but keep in mind that at least 50% of it is luck. You can't expect too many stocks to double over the course of a year.
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