Portfolio

What Constitutes an Alternative Energy Company? There's a debate going on in the clean energy investment community about which companies are "green" enough to merit our attention.  Before the filming of my WealthTrack appearance, I got into a discussion with Ardour Global Indexes' Joseph LaCorte.  The Global Alternative Energy ETF (NYSE: GEX) is based on the index he manages.   The format of the show includes a top pick from each of the guests at the end of the show, and Mr. LaCorte was hoping that I'd pick GEX, since I had previously told him that it was...

Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Until recently, green income investing was an oxymoron. Most companies people think of as green (think Tesla Motors (TSLA) or First Solar (FSLR)) are relatively new companies that are investing all of their profits (such as they are) back into the business.  Meanwhile traditional income sectors like utilities, oil and gas, and coal mining are deeply tied into fossil fuels.  Real Estate Income Trusts (REITs) are the sole exception.  A REIT is as green as the property it owns, and a few such companies are real leaders in sustainable buildings......

I purchased shares of Mechanical Technology Inc (MKTY) and Medis Technologies Ltd. (MDTL) this morning for the mutual fund and also my personal portfolio. Both of these companies are working on the miniaturization of liquid fuel cells so that they can power portable electronic equipment like cell phones and laptop computers. Both companies have also secured contracts from the military to research portable fuel cells for military applications. Both companies announced earnings recently and still show no signs of becoming profitable in the near future. However, they have both made progress on trimming their losses. I feel that...

Tom Konrad CFA My clean energy portfolio outperformed again in 2011, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. Without a doubt, 2011 was a horrible year for Clean Energy stocks, nearly as bad as 2008.  The difference was that, in 2008, the entire stock market was crushed, while this year, the broad market ended with only modest declines compared to clean energy stocks. Based on 2010 and 2011 closing prices, the broad market (as measured by the performance of the Russell 2000 index), was down 10%, while clean energy stocks were down 52%, as...

Tom Konrad CFA The last two months have not been kind to clean energy stocks.  Most commentators attribute the weakness to declining oil prices and the Republicans' strong showing in the midterm elections.  Whatever the cause, my 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2014 model portfolio was dragged into a loss for the year where it had previously looked to return a small gain.  A large part of the decline was in the dollar's strength.  Measured in local currency, the average stock was flat, but the 8% decline in...

Fredric Ruffy from Optionetics.com has written a cautionary article about investing in Alternative Energy stocks. If alternative fuel companies made lots of money, there would be no energy crisis today. Unfortunately, most of these companies don't. You will start to see more and more stories about this sector now that gas prices are starting to cross the $3 per gallon mark and head even higher. As I said in a previous article, this sector is currently in a trading market. While he cautions investors that are looking for the long term viability of this investment, he...

Tom Konrad CFA Clip art by Philip Martin January has been a great month for clean energy stocks, and the stock market as a whole.  My clean energy benchmark, the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW), returned 10.9%, while the broad universe of small cap stocks which I benchmark with the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) is up a lesser but still impressive 9.5%. My ten clean energy picks for 2013 (introduced here), are up a...

Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA In the two months since my last "monthly" update, the stock market has been in turmoil.  At the end of June, I was pleased report that my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2015 model portfolio was not only up for the year, it was comfortably ahead of its benchmarks.  At the end of August, the report is of a more win-the-battle-lose-the-war variety. The portfolio is still ahead of its benchmarks, but it's now down 1% for the year to date. The portfolio lost 4.8% in July and 5.7% in August, to end...

I placed several trades for the mutual fund this afternoon to start building a position in some of the fuel cell companies. This sub-sector has been under pressure the last couple of months but seems to be building a nice base of support at the current levels. I feel this entire sub-sector is ready for a nice up move and the stocks have been behaving nicely the last week or so. The one stock I seriously considered not adding was Quantum. The stock has been in a steady decline and there is no sign that it’s going to slow...