Like penny stocks? Want to know how your portfolio is performing in this crisis? Comparing your portfolio to the Dow Jones or S&P 500 indexes is not much use, as these measure America’s biggest blue-chips. Jonas Elmerraji picks three more suitable benchmarks to gauge your investing fortunes.

The recruitment industry is getting whacked right along with most other sectors right now. But Penny Sleuth’s Tom Bulford sees strong potential for Hexagon Human Capital (LON:HHC). The company is well protected from the purge in the financial sector and has a solid cash flow. Tom says this is one to watch for the future…

The Dow plunged over 370 points in yesterday’s going, wiping out Friday’s spectacular gains for big-name stocks.

But there are profits to be made in the small-cap market says Laura Cadden in Today’s Financial News. She’s found three great small-cap stocks going for bargain prices. All three have solid valuation ratios and strong short-term growth prospects.

They are Javo Beverage Company (OTC:JAVO), The Home Shopping Network (NASDAQ:HSNI), and Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO).

As major Wall Street players disappear down the toilet and the government’s bailouts rumble on, Breakthrough Technology Alert editor Patrick Cox says investors can find exciting developments in chip technology and robotics. These transformative industries can yield mega profits, especially given the growth potential of robots in the manufacturing and defense industries.

Penny stock expert Tom Bulford has found two dirt cheap mining companies with new projects developing in resource-rich South America. Horizonte (LON:HZM) and Mariana (LON:MARL) have very different business strategies. But Tom says both are well placed for a major upswing before the year is up.

Tom Bulford says penny stock Symphony Environmental Technologies (LON:SYM) could be about to make a breakout. It produces an additive that makes plastic bags oxo-biodegradable. This means the bags ‘disappear’ in a short space of time, leaving no harmful residues. Major retailers across the world are beginning to adopt the product, and sales were up 73% y-o-y in the first half of 2008.

It can be easy to forget that some of the world’s biggest companies started out as penny stocks. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to name a few. Penny Sleuth’s Jim Nelson says penny stocks may carry more risk than blue-chips, but the success stories show the rewards can be worth the extra risk.

Penny stock expert Jim Nelson says that, in addition to offering the largest potential gains of any type of stock, penny stocks also offer investors dividend payments just like blue chip stocks. Here Jim explains how you can turn $5,000 into $151,025.76 in five years using penny stock dividends…

Floyd Brown says it’s important to keep a portion of your portfolio in contrarian plays, even in a bear market. But it can be tough to distinguish between undervalued firms and garbage.

Penny Stock Fortunes editor Greg Guenthner specializes in digging up the hard-to-find headlines that could lead to big gains for small-cap portfolios.

Yesterday, he ran a piece about a breakthrough technology called polymer energy. This turns recycled plastics into crude oil.

Greg reckons this proprietary technology will change recycling forever. He also reckons it could mean major gains for early investors…