Imagine sitting at your boring day job knowing that tens of thousands of dollars were pouring into your checking account during the day. That’s exactly what happened to Steve Demeter when his iPhone game Trism hit big in August.

The game, which he created in his spare time, made Demeter $250,000 in its first two months on Apple’s “App Store” — enough to entice him to quit his job as an ATM software designer and start his own game development studio.

But Demeter’s game earned mere pocket change compared with some of the other independent developers who’ve hit it big recently. Look no further than Ethan Nicholas, a one-man team who watched his own game, iShoot, climb to No. 1 on Apple’s…

Algae has great potential as an alternative and clean source of oil. Greg Gunner Guenthner we could see a powerful new energy industry emerging in the next few years. He says early investors could make huge profits with these three small cap companies developing the technology to extract fuel from algae.

The action in the market so far is inconclusive. The year started beautifully, then we plunged into another year showing losses. So soon.

For long-term investors who are buying companies with good prospects for several years to come, this is a buyers market. But there is one group to either avoid or treat with extreme care–small caps.

These stocks are doing much worse than large- and mid-cap stocks. As of Wednesday morning (Jan. 14), the large-cap Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 are down 3.7% and 3.5%. The S&P Midcaps are doing better– down 3%. But the Russell 2000 (small cap) Index is down 5% and the S&P small caps are down 6%.

Investors have the basic idea right. The smaller companies may…

Biotech companies are a great investment right now, says Laura Cadden. And support from the Obama administration will ensure this trend continues. Laura picks four small cap biotech firms set to soar.

Master Limited Partnerships are a useful investment for minimizing your tax bill says Jim Nelson. They are trusts mainly comprised of natural resource, financial services, and real estate assets. Jim picks five small-cap MLPs that should provide steady income without the burden of double taxation.

Hooray! A take-over bid for a small company. While the City in its state of bearish paralysis might not be able to recognize the undervaluation of small companies those in the trade certainly can.

Our friend at TickerHound is back with a sequel to last week’s article on mobile technology in China. This time around, he’s giving us a spectacular penny stock that’s traded in the U.S. Enjoy…

It’s no secret America’s health care system has problems. As I wrote last week, tens of thousands of people die unnecessarily every year due to medical errors… many of which could be prevented if hospitals and doctors adopted technology to track prescriptions and handle health care records.