My investing idea today won’t be a surprise to anyone who follows Chinese stocks even slightly.  It’s a company called Sohu.com (SOHU), a Web portal that’s often called the Yahoo! of China.

For many Chinese, Sohu.com is their window to the world.  The Sohu.com portal offers an enormous range of information and activities, including search, news, sports, entertainment, gossip, games, affinity groups, alumni groups, financial information, real-estate services and lots more.

The company was a big sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, streaming many events and offering background information on athletes, medal counts, results and color commentary.  Sohu got huge exposure from the deal, which lead to a huge spike in visits to the Web site and increased minutes spent there.

The company generates revenue from a standard mix of keyword search fees, games and paid advertising.  Results for the last four quarters have featured year-over-year earnings growth of 105%, 256%, 410% and 260%.  It’s not surprising that institutional ownership has hit a new all-time high of 134, which is substantial, but leaves lots of room for growth.

The stock has been in a downtrend since peaking at 92 in June, falling heavily as investors have grown progressively more defensive.  Now trading at about 37, the stock has fallen through what should have been its support level at 40.  It’s not in free fall, but it will need to find a new support level and build a base before it’s really buyable.

I think it will be a great addition to your watch list, and should do well when the world comes out from under the clouds.