Portfolio

A year ago, I brought you  10 Alternative Energy Stocks I thought were worth speculating on for 2008. I revisited these in June, when a balanced portfolio of the 10 was "up 11.4% for the year, compared to the S&P 500 which is down 4.2% and the NASDAQ Clean Edge US Index, which is down approximately 14.3%."   Speculative picks tend to do better than the market as a whole in bull markets, and worse in bear markets, so given the steep drop in markets since then, I would normally expect these more speculative picks to fare worse.  This is...

John Petersen Short sellers are the bane of every securities lawyer who represents small public companies. In over thirty years of practice I've never advocated a short sale because I hate the idea of profiting from someone else's misery. Based on recent quarterly reports filed by my short-list of pure play energy storage companies, which includes Tesla Motors (TSLA) as an honorary member, I'm compelled to break with tradition and suggest a paired trade that involves a short sale of Tesla coupled with a long purchase of Exide Technologies (XIDE). The following table summarizes the year-to-date and...

Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA I never thought 2009 would be a good year for risky stocks, but my readers asked for them anyway.  So far, my risk taking readers have not been burnt too badly, and the portfolio as a whole continues to track its benchmarks. In my first quarter update for my green energy gambles for 2009, I noted that the portfolio had lost about 10%, between the benchmark returns (-12% and -5%), but not very impressive.  Since then, the portfolio as a whole has gained a little ground, and is almost exactly midway between the benchmarks. The...

Tom Konrad CFA Although green stocks did better than un-green (or brown) stocks since Newsweek's 2009 Green Rankings were published, the big winners were the greenest stocks in the brownest sectors. Newsweek has released its 2010 Green Rankings for America's 500 largest corporations, and the companies at the top of the list are happily gloating about being greener than their rivals.  More important to investors is the question: Do the greenest companies beat the market? Marc Gunther notes that the top 100 companies in the 2009 Green Rankings outperformed the S&P 500 by 6.8%.  ...

This morning I purchased shares in Hoku Scientific, Inc. (HOKU) for my personal portfolio and an average price of $9.47. I was unable to purchase shares in this stock for the mutual fund since it is a recent IPO that came to the market in early August. Hoku is a fuel cell membrane manufacture that is based out of Hawaii. They have strategic partnerships created with Sanyo Electric and Nissan. This company also has the honor of being one of the select few companies in this sector that is actually profitable. Another amazing aspect of this company is...

 October was a spooky month for clean energy stocks.  My benchmark Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW) cringed down 2.9% like the young Supergirl who jumped when a mechanical ghost startled her at my door Haloween night.   My 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2014 model portfolio was more like Supergirl's slightly older brother, who was dressed as a SWAT team member and insisted that he wasn't scared: It rose a slim 0.9% since the last update on October 3rd.  For the ten months since I launched the portfolio on December 26th, PBW...

Tom Konrad CFA In the third quarter, clean energy stocks in general continued their upward trend, turning in a 27% gain for the quarter and a 64% gain for the year as a whole, as measured by my benchmark and most broadly held clean energy ETF, Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy (PBW.)  This brings PBW back up to levels last seen in September 2011.  The broad market and my model portfolio of Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013 have also done well.  My small cap benchmark (IWM) is up 10% for...

The Casualty Last Monday, I discussed how I had recently reviewed Railpower Tech with a view to potentially adding to my position on grounds that: (a) the company had a fair amount of cash in the bank, which reduced the need to go to capital markets for financing for a while; and (b) that it was getting badly battered by general market conditions, potentially offering an attractive entry point. Although my portfolio has taken a beating in recent weeks, I remain ready to take small positions in stocks if I feel they are being unfairly bashed, including in...

Tom Konrad CFA For both the stock market and the weather, March was more lion than lamb.  My broad market benchmark fell 2.2% to end up 1.5% for the quarter.  Volatile clean energy stocks were down 4%, to end the quarter up 15.7%.  My annual Ten Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio is designed to avoid much of the sector's notorious volatility, and fell only 0.6%, ending the quarter with a 3.9% total return.  In dollar terms, the first six (income oriented) picks returned an average...

Tom Konrad CFA My ten annual stock picks have outperformed their clean energy benchmark for the third year running. Each year, I publish a list of ten renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleantech stocks that I feel will outperform their peers in the coming year.  In both 2008 and 2009, my picks have beaten their industry benchmark, the PowerShares Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF (PBW), the most widely held industry ETF and the one that I recommend for making short-term bets on the clean energy industry.  The 2010 list is here. This year has been an interesting...

Tom Konrad CFA I included two "Clean Energy Speculations" along with my annual model portfolio of ten clean energy stocks this year.  It's been a tough year for clean energy stocks in general, with my industry benchmark (Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF (PBW)) down about 15% since I initiated the portfolios on December 27th 2013.  Despite this, both the main portfolio and the speculations look likely to end the year with small gains.  The two speculations were Ram Power Corp (TSX:RPG, OTC:RAMPF) and Finavera Wind Energy (TSX-V:FVR, OTC:FNVRF). Both are clean energy project...

Tom Konrad, CFA The stock market is up, and my bets against it are down, except in energy.  It's time to double down. Earlier this week, a client asked me if I'd found any buying opportunities while doing research for my "Best Peak Oil Investments" series.  The answer is, "no," although I've found a few companies I'm hoping to buy at lower prices, later.  As regular readers know, I've been bearish since June 2009, after I cashed in on the quick rally in March, April, and May of that year.  My last ten months of...

The markets have been in flux the last couple of weeks. I feel we are at a make or break time for the general trend of the market. Yesterday the S&P 500 was trying to close above the 200 day Moving Average but it failed. A close above this level will give me good reason to start investing some money again. Today the markets are down again and when you look at the S&P the 1210 level looks to be some solid resistance. People may wonder why I'm so concerned about the very short term trend of...

Tom Konrad CFA I missed my regular monthly update on my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013 model portfolio last month, and a lot has happened to the individual companies since.  Because of this, I will split this semiannual update in two parts.  This part will look at the performance of the portfolio as a whole, and the reasons it's lagging its benchmarks.  The next part will look at the news driving the performance of specific stocks. Since the last update on May 5th, my portfolio has advanced 3.0% for a 10.5% return for the first...

I check in with professional green money managers Shawn Kravetz, Garvin Jabush, Jan Schalkwijk, and Rafael Coven to see how their fourteen top picks for 2014 are doing.

Tom Konrad CFA It's been a busy six weeks since I last updated readers on the news events driving my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013 and six alternative picks.  I looked into the performance of the portfolio as a whole at the start of the month, along with some comments about the four renewable energy developers.  I thought at the time we might be seeing a bottom for these beleaguered stocks, but if I was right, we have yet to see the upturn.  Nevertheless, the...