I haven’t written about Benjamin Shepherd’s Global Investment Strategist in quite a long time, so when folks started asking about his pitch for “Black Rock Fuel” I thought I’d take a look for you — and it so happens that today is Friday, so we’ll be doing it Friday File-style, Irregulars only.

Before I dig into it, I’ll just update you on a couple things…

First, yes, I did buy a little stock since I last wrote to you — I picked up a few more shares of Ligand (LGND) on a dip to $62 or so, in case you missed my note about that earlier in the week. This stock is one of the high-volatility momentum-driven names that get beat up with some regularity, but it also has very high profitability and no real need to spend money. So it will continue to fluctuate with investor sentiment about biotech, but I still like the idea of building on my holdings whenever it falls substantially. Assuming, of course, that there’s no bad news about their pipeline or about their proprietary products (there isn’t, as far as I know).

Analysts are still projecting spectacular growth (and raising their growth expectations), going from 63 cents last year to $2.40 in 2015, so I’m still happy to nibble at 45X the current year’s expected earnings. In a weaker market, the stock could easily trade down to $40 even if nothing particularly bad happens to their most profitable drugs (Kyprolis and Promacta) … so I wouldn’t go crazy, but I still keep seeing reasons to nibble whenever I have some cash on hand.

And as you probably know, I spent last week at the Value Investing Congress in Las Vegas, hobnobbing with some excellent value investors and sharing my notes from dozens of interesting presentations. I’m still rattling those stock ideas around in my brain (and hoping for a bit more market weakness that makes them cheaper), but I’m planning to narrow it down to one favorite and share my thoughts on that stock a week from today in our next “Idea of the Month”. Here are the stocks that are contenders for that coveted attention (narrowed down because they’re reasonably easy for US investors to buy, and no short sale ideas), in case you want to share any comments or suggestions or point me toward your favorite:

Platform Specialty ...