Portfolio

I purchased shares in Altair Nanomaterials (ALTI) this morning for both my personal portfolio and also the mutual fund. ALTI is a holding company that specializes in nanomaterials and also contains a life sciences division. The materials company has research in high performance batteries, fuel cells, and photovoltaics. Altair announced earnings today and the stock is up on the morning trading. Revenue Increases 68 Percent for Third Quarter and 230 Percent for Nine-Month Period "An increase in revenue of 230 percent for the first three quarters of 2005 is representative of the significant progress Altair has...

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...

This morning I purchased shares of Capstone Turbine Corp (CPTC) in both my personal portfolio and the mutual fund. I have been waiting for the stock to show some strength after its recent declines. The stock appears to have some nice support at the $2.25 level as a bottom. They will be announcing quarterly earnings on November 10th. Capstone Turbine developments and manufactures microturbine generators. The company’s microturbines can also be used as generators for hybrid electric vehicle applications. It also offers Model C60 integrated combined heat and power systems (CHP). A one third stake have been purchased...

Several key indicators I follow have put me back into a buying mood. But sadly I will be spending most of my day in meetings and will not have much time to follow through on any purchases. I wanted to post a quick update about the stocks I'm following. I will be averaging down on some of my current holdings this week and also looking to add some new stocks to the portfolio. Here is my short list of new stocks I'm taking a close look at to add to the portfolio: Capstone Turbine Corp (CPTC)...

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...

Scottish Power plc (SPI) is an electrical generation and distribution company primarily focused in the UK. They have two subsidiaries that are based in the US, PacificCorp and PPM Energy. They are currently in the process of trying to sell PacificCorp to Berkshire Hathaway. PPM Energy is a company with extensive wind energy development and generation. Scottish Power also has extensive wind farms in Scotland and Europe. They are also developing off-shore wind power of the Welsh coast. This stock has been moving strong recently and it looks like it is building a base at the $40...

I received an e-mail from a reader that had questions about holding DSTI. I had some concerns about DSTI. I was wondering if you still believe investment in this company or alternative energy stocks is worth it. If crude oil drops further (let say mid 50s) do you think it will have negative impact on alternative energy stocks particularly ENER and DSTI. I was very happy with the holding a couple days ago, but the performance of DSTI in last 2 days without any news has got me concerned. Let me answer your question with first a...

The fears of Rita have fallen away and the market is finally moving to the upside again this morning. I have been watching IdaTech (IDA) for purchase for a couple of weeks and I had previously mentioned I have been looking for a good entry point on this stock. IDAcorp is an Idaho power utility with electrical generation using Hydro, Natural Gas, and Coal. They also own IDATech which manufactures fuel cell solutions. I'm waiting on this one until the technical picture of the chart improves. I would be a buyer if we can either get...

I currently don't have time to do a complete writeup on this stock, but wanted to let everyone know that I purchased shares in Active Power Inc (ACPW) this afternoon for both my personal portfolio and the mutual fund. The average price was at $3.77. I will updated this post later this afternoon with more details. Updated at 10:00 PM As I mentioned above I purchased shares in Active Power Inc (ACPW) this afternoon for both the mutual fund and my personal portfolio. Active Power designs and sells battery-free uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems....

This morning I purchased shares for the mutual fund in two large utility companies that both have extensive research and power generation via renewable energy. FPL Group Inc (FPL) is an electric utility that is primarily based in the South East. This company owns Florida Power and Light and has been in much of the recent news due to hurricane Katrina. FPL also owns FPL Energy which is a division that provides wholesale electric power that is generated from Natural Gas, Wind, Solar, Hydro, and Nuclear. They currently produce more Wind generated power than any company in the...

Energy Conversion Devices Inc (ENER) opened up trading this morning with a gap down to the $33 level. For the last hour it has been steadily rising up from this point. As I said in my earlier post, I have been looking for a good entry point in this company and feel that the near term support of $33 is an ideal area to place an order. The stock has been on a run for several months and it is always hard to take a new position in a stock that has already seen dramatic increases...

DayStar Technologies Inc (DSTI) has been on my radar for some time and the recent operational update created some renewed interest in the company. The stock traded up nicely over the past couple of days and it is now trading back down to the near term support due to some profit taking on the news. I have been looking for a good entry point on this stock and I feel like today is the day to make the move. Technically, the downside of this stock is that it may not be able to hold its currently levels and could...

Hydrogenics Corp (HYGS) is a developer of fuel cell technology and hydrogen generation. They are also working with wind farm technology in the generation of hydrogen. Back in January of this year they successfully completed the purchase of Stuart Energy which compliments their product portfolio. Shares of the stock have been under pressure for the last couple of months due to missed expectations on Q1 revenue results. There is also some major concern about an increase in product backlog. In August, HYGS issued their most recent quarterly earnings and are attempting to reassure the...

Lighting Science Group Corp. (LSGP.OB) has been on my watchlist for several months. They design and market energy efficient lighting solutions with long lasting LED bulbs that can be quickly deployed in existing lighting applications and produce immediate cost savings and environmental benefits. Some key events that have attracted me to this company: They recently moved to the OTC BB off the pink sheets.They recently received a private placement of almost $7 millionAfter a several year absence they are finally a fully reporting companyThey are currently far from being profitable, but the trend on the balance sheet is...

I'm continuing to make changes to the site behind the scenes.One major change that I'm going to institute is to provide greater transparency in my own Alt E portfolio. The goal of this change is not for ego but to prove that this sector can be profitable for your portfolio. In future posts you will see everything, the winners, the losers, and also the what and why of each investment decision. This was one of the most frequent requests made by many website visitors. The news stories will be fewer and more focused. This will give me more time...

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...