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First Solar (FSLR – Last trade $111.64) on Thursday registered to sell 9.65 million shares, including 5.65 million shares to be sold by selling stockholders. FSLR traded down sharply on the news. We have suggested before that FSLR may go for a secondary offering, and today's sell-off on the news provides a great entry point…
Earnings season is once again upon us, and the losses on subprime mortgages still continue to have a negative spill-over on the stock market. SunPower (SPWR – Last trade $68.71) reported ahead of the opening bell, and shares tanked. SPWR August option implied volatility moved up to 57 before the start of trade, above its 6-month average…
The Senate got rolling with its defense authorization bill, HR 1585, last week, but left a lineup of amendments to roll back troops in Iraq – to be voted on this week. Just about every Democrat, and now a growing number of Republicans, have their own pull out plan. The top runners would: start withdrawing…
In a seeming about-face by the oil industry, Big Oil is now encouraging the development of alternative energy. As Congress considers boosting clean tech through legislation, the National Petroleum Council is on hand to lobby FOR increased alternative energy. CNN Money reports on this extraordinary move by Big Oil: "The world is not running out…
After reading “Message in a Bottle” by Charles Fishman in the July issue of Fast Company, I questioned whether the article would be widely discussed by bloggers and other people interested in the environment. Even though bottled water is ubiquitous, particularly on these scorching July days, is an article that questions the validity of both…
Photo:kqedquest, Creative Commons, Flickr Have you been itching to buy FirstSolar (FSLR – Last trade $112.05), but nervous to get on board with the stock going hyperbolic? If yes, I have some great news. Barrons just did a front page story on how FSLR "may get singed". Given the stock's unbelievable run over recent weeks,…
Photo:Taylor Dundee, Creative Commons, Flickr One of the trends in ethical and environmental investing right now includes alternative energy ETF investing. Not too long ago, I wrote about ETFs with regard to the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW). ETFs allow you to buy and sell funds on the stock market, much as you do…
I recommend cartoonist Tom Hart 's parodies of a TV investment personality called The Money Warrior. I hope that we, at The Panelist, can get to the point where we are parodied like this.
Microfinance is the business of providing very small loans, or "microloans", to poor communities around the world in an effort to spur local entrepreneurship and community development. With most loans valued at less than $100, this is oftentimes all that is needed to jumpstart economic growth in impoverished areas. Given the World Bank estimates of 1.2 billion people…
General Electric (GE – $39.50) reported earnings today. The stock is now up to $39.50. That's about 14% since I started buying GE back in March. What am I doing now? I'm still holding General Electric. Would I add to my position at this price? I don't own as much GE as I'd like, but…
I might agree with Thomas Friedman in his July 8, New York Times article "Live Bad, Go Green," when he concludes, "The green revolution today is still a hallucination." This summary leaves readers with a gloomy outlook on the current state of affairs.
They are sexy, they are engaging, they are angry, they embarrass war mongers, they protect our troops, they care — Oh! And they are HOT BABY. Our friends at Code Pink – Women for Peace got a nice write up in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday. And believe me, I never want to get them…
Big Oil show no signs of going away, as it dominates the Fortune Global 500 list.
For those of you who would like a rundown every month of what happened in the world of socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility, one place to go is The Motley Fool. Its column "Stocks with Scruples" by S.J. Caplan comes out once a month (usually in the middle of the month) and provides…
We, here at The Panelist, really enjoy our "full disclosure" policy. We encourage our writers to disclose everything about their relationships to a company, no matter how remote. Beyond disclosing whether they own a stock, our writers often disclose their use of the company's products, or those of a competitor. They will even go as far as…
I paid $68.27 to add my position in (AIG $68.64) today. The P/E is under 12. The company is growing nicely with many business lines and is still being punished for insurance scandals past. There is pretty big open interest in the $70 strike options for expiration next week, which should act as a kind…
The backlash on the green trend has finally arrived, and the question now is if the current wave of environmentalism has staying power. The people at Spiked see environmentalism fundamentally as an emotional spasm, a twitch of guilt and angst, which dresses itself in "frightfully dry statistics" to look grown up. Greenormal argues that "the…
Photo:poorfish, Creative Commons, Flickr Big Oil stocks are still rising, but will $80-a-barrel oil ruin the party?
Photo:coda, Creative Commons, Flickr The German photovoltaic industry knew bad news was on the way, and it could have been worse. Last week, Germany’s Environment Ministry recommended a shift in subsidies from solar energy installations to offshore wind farms. The solar sector breathed a collective sigh of relief because the subsidy could have easily been…
It will come as a surprise to no one that the media has caught on to the “green movement” in a big way this year. It is difficult to pass by a news stand without seeing at least one magazine touting an article about what is really going on in this space. While many of…
BP (BP) is not particularly popular in Alaska right now. As the main Big Oil company with interest in the Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in the U.S., it is vital that BP clean up its image. A series of partial closures (including one due to a massive pipeline leak last year), and other…
It used to be that biotech referred mainly to big pharma, however energy giants now want in on what many feel is the upcoming biotech revolution. The next big thing could be "bio-refineries" that produce alternative energy for mass consumption. CNN Money reports that creating cost-efficient biofuels is generating a great deal of interest:
Photo:Dean Terry, Creative Commons, Flickr The Senate's defense authorization bill brings the debate on Iraq back to center stage this week, with senators possibly voting on amendments to: start withdrawing troops in 120 days, with most out by next April; repeal the original authorization to go to war; set minimum breaks for soldiers in between…
Based on a reader comment from Alex, I decided to update my Intel cocktail from March. "Question: INTC stands today at 24.68. Are you still in these positions, as declared on 3/21/07? The stock is up 30% from your 17.41 "cocktail cost"…what're the results of your investment, now that the underlying security has surpassed the…
I'm usually not a fan of trying to pick market tops. I prefer to let the market top out at levels higher than I'd imagined and sell on the way down, hopefully still above those prices that are higher than I'd ever imagined. I still think U.S. stocks look like the bargain of the world…