Soylent Green Commies
Soylent Green is people. But the Chinese are going green. Slowly. Does that make them soylent? or people? The Chinese are people, so they must be Soylent Green. Right? Where am I going with this failed circular logic? Here.
See, American Superconductor is a company I've considered investing because of some of their research/production of green alternatives like wind energy components. Turns out, they've got a deal to supply some components to Austrian based Windtec, which is providing wind turbines and what have you to China. Hell, the Chinese even have a special renewables assocation, the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, ran by the government. They just want to beat us in everything. Better start learning Chinese.
Seriously, though, they plan on having over 20,000 wind turbines pumping out 20Gw of power by 2020. That's a lot of 20s, and it'd give China the biggest energy economy in the world.
On an investment tangent, around 2000, American Superconductor was trading at around $70/share. Now, there're consistantly around $10-$11. They're 52 week high is 11.99. Right now, they're not a good investment unless you have cash to risk. They've been around long enough that a negative P/E is bad news. Really, a negative P/E is always bad news since it means the company is losing money, but in a newer company working on breakthrough technology, such as XSun or Ballard Power System, it's more of a speculative investment in my mind. Still, with American Superconductor, they should be making money. The business focuses on creating high end technological solutions for lowering the cost of power generation from various sources. I'm sure right now they're heavily into R&D and marketing new solutions to places like China, but at $10 a share, my poor ass wants a company that's already making money or doing R&D on VERY innovative products. (I can invest in RPM Industries, which makes Rust-o-leum and Bondo and shit for $16 a share, be very secure with it, and they pay me $0.64 per share, per year just for trusting them) I'm not saying this company is bad. I'm just saying it isn't for me right now. I'll stick with the other two companies I mentioned. With both of those, the risk is higher, but I can risk less actual capital and stand to quickly gain a higher reward than is possible with American Superconductor.
*Warning* A very simple, but slightly technical and very mathematical explanation of why I'd invest in XSun over American Superconductor resides below. I'm not a professional investor and this is not advice on how to invest, so don't sue me if you lose money. :)
(Say you buy $200 worth of a company. At $10 a share, you get 20 shares. To make $200 MORE than your investment, the stock has to go up $10, which isn't likely going to happen in today's volatile investment world unless the company nails some breakthrough money making thing out of the blue. At $1.50 a share, it's more likely you'll double your money because even at $3 a share some schmuck like you can still buy 100 shares for only a $300 investment. Plus, if you figure a $15 trading fee, you're looking at needing to make $30 off the sale just to break even. With 20 shares, your investment has to go up $1.50/share for that. With 130 shares (roughly what you'd get at $1.50), your investment only has to rise $0.26/share to break even. But again, I must reiterate. Chances are likely that the lower cost investment is MUCH riskier than the higher cost one. Either way, though, we're talking about $200. If you can afford to lose it, go with the risk. If you can't afford to lose it, find a safe money market account and stear clear of stocks for awhile. If it's all you have in your emergency fund, keep it in a savings account that's easy to access, because you should NEVER invest your emergency fund in something that's A)not highly liquid and B)is highly susceptible to market fluctuations. It's recommended your emergency fund be what it takes for you to live at your current level for three months without income. Six months is better. Mine is at one month, which makes my $200 investment even riskier, so I don't recommend following in my footsteps at all. *wink*)
See, American Superconductor is a company I've considered investing because of some of their research/production of green alternatives like wind energy components. Turns out, they've got a deal to supply some components to Austrian based Windtec, which is providing wind turbines and what have you to China. Hell, the Chinese even have a special renewables assocation, the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, ran by the government. They just want to beat us in everything. Better start learning Chinese.
Seriously, though, they plan on having over 20,000 wind turbines pumping out 20Gw of power by 2020. That's a lot of 20s, and it'd give China the biggest energy economy in the world.
On an investment tangent, around 2000, American Superconductor was trading at around $70/share. Now, there're consistantly around $10-$11. They're 52 week high is 11.99. Right now, they're not a good investment unless you have cash to risk. They've been around long enough that a negative P/E is bad news. Really, a negative P/E is always bad news since it means the company is losing money, but in a newer company working on breakthrough technology, such as XSun or Ballard Power System, it's more of a speculative investment in my mind. Still, with American Superconductor, they should be making money. The business focuses on creating high end technological solutions for lowering the cost of power generation from various sources. I'm sure right now they're heavily into R&D and marketing new solutions to places like China, but at $10 a share, my poor ass wants a company that's already making money or doing R&D on VERY innovative products. (I can invest in RPM Industries, which makes Rust-o-leum and Bondo and shit for $16 a share, be very secure with it, and they pay me $0.64 per share, per year just for trusting them) I'm not saying this company is bad. I'm just saying it isn't for me right now. I'll stick with the other two companies I mentioned. With both of those, the risk is higher, but I can risk less actual capital and stand to quickly gain a higher reward than is possible with American Superconductor.
*Warning* A very simple, but slightly technical and very mathematical explanation of why I'd invest in XSun over American Superconductor resides below. I'm not a professional investor and this is not advice on how to invest, so don't sue me if you lose money. :)
(Say you buy $200 worth of a company. At $10 a share, you get 20 shares. To make $200 MORE than your investment, the stock has to go up $10, which isn't likely going to happen in today's volatile investment world unless the company nails some breakthrough money making thing out of the blue. At $1.50 a share, it's more likely you'll double your money because even at $3 a share some schmuck like you can still buy 100 shares for only a $300 investment. Plus, if you figure a $15 trading fee, you're looking at needing to make $30 off the sale just to break even. With 20 shares, your investment has to go up $1.50/share for that. With 130 shares (roughly what you'd get at $1.50), your investment only has to rise $0.26/share to break even. But again, I must reiterate. Chances are likely that the lower cost investment is MUCH riskier than the higher cost one. Either way, though, we're talking about $200. If you can afford to lose it, go with the risk. If you can't afford to lose it, find a safe money market account and stear clear of stocks for awhile. If it's all you have in your emergency fund, keep it in a savings account that's easy to access, because you should NEVER invest your emergency fund in something that's A)not highly liquid and B)is highly susceptible to market fluctuations. It's recommended your emergency fund be what it takes for you to live at your current level for three months without income. Six months is better. Mine is at one month, which makes my $200 investment even riskier, so I don't recommend following in my footsteps at all. *wink*)
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 2:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home