It is very easy for a CEO to get on a conference call and talk about confidence in the future while communicating glowing projections, but do they really believe what they are saying? Are there any actions that would make you believe what they are saying? Senior management purchasing company stock is a strong indicator of confidence in the future. Also ...

A roundup of last week's stock market related blog posts hosted at Fat Pitch Financials.

John Bethel reviews the performance of the Controlled Greed portfolio for the first quarter of 2007. Overall, the group was up 4.6% vs. the S&P being up about 0.2% for Q1 of '07.

John Bethel tracks the performance of stocks mentioned on his blog. "I’ve made 18 stock purchase recommendations since...launching this blog on April 27, 2005...In all, the stock picks made on this blog have averaged a gain of 38.4% during the life of this blog." John details the performance of each pick. This post is worth reading simply to see the list of stocks.

This week's festival includes six posts discussing specific stocks, three posts on topics in investing, and a poem. Yes, you read that right. This week's festival concludes with a poem. It's the proverbial cherry on top of this satisfying stock sundae. Stocks mentioned include: Legg Mason (LM), Overstock.com (OSTK), Western Union (WU), Whole Foods (WFMI), Walter Industries (WLT), and Mueller Water Products (MWA).