For some time we’ve known about ethanol and how it will help our dependency on oil. A fuel source derived from corn. Is it really worth the effort to go this route?
When this idea was first presented to the American people, It was packaged and sold to us that this is the way to go to remove ourselves from the need of foreign oil. It’s been several years now and lets take a good look at what ethanol really does for us.
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Ethanol has been used in gas products for decades and offers a way for a cleaner burning fuel. Unfortunately it’s not true, well the fuel burns cleaner, but to make the fuel it causes more pollution than if we just used the gas without the ethanol.
As for the corn that is needed to make the product. We use 20% of the nations food supply (corn) to make 3% of the fuel that we burn. Mathematically that doesn’t seem like an equation that makes sense. We’re creating a new problem while trying to eradicate another.
It is believed that it will take about 60 million acres dedicated to corn growing to remove our oil dependency without effecting our domestic food supplies, but what about the exporting of those products. We export quite a bit of it to other countries and what’s to come when we don’t have enough.
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Take into consideration that ethanol can not be transported by pipelines, so we need to use trains, trucks and barges to move it, which in turn becomes more expensive and involved than using a pipeline.
Ethanol contains less energy than gas. That means drivers have to make more frequent trips to the pump. it is estimated that vehicles get 25 % less mileage with ethanol than it does with fossil fuels. It is stated that the new vehicles will get better mileage as the car manufacturers improve the vehicles, but we know that they (with the help of politicians) will only improve the cars so much.
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So you make the call. Is ethanol really worth the effort? In my opinion, no.

In the past week there has been a lot of talk about Lehman Brothers in the news. With the issues going on in the financial sector, it’s no surprise that Lehman would be the week’s star. Lehman’s price per share has dropped 61% since June when it received $4 billion in raised capitol. Now it seems that they are out trying to get more capitol for save the company. Last month it was a Korean development fund that they were trying to convince. At this point all indicators are showing that Lehman is ripe for a hostile takeover. The stock is trading at $13 at a time when Lehman’s book value is at $34. An analyst from Ladenburg Thalmann Dick Bove, upgraded Lehman Brothers to “buy” because of the fact that the firm has become a candidate for a hostile takeover.

It is also expected that they will have more losses in this quarter again. Most likely it will be below the street’s expectations. One Goldman Sachs analyst expects write-downs to the tune of between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion during its fiscal third quarter

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The financial sector has been riddled with one bad news report after another and I believe that the time for picking up shares of certain banks and brokeage firms is just about here. I’m looking at a few of them right now and because of the last few days of news on Lehman Brothers I moved them to the top of this list of “stocks of interest”.

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Remember when I wrote about the Fannie and Freddie on 7-14-08 on the infusion from the Feds, the stocks of both companies jumped 30%+two days later. I have that same feeling on Lehman as I did with the other two. I’m waiting to see some more news on them this week, but I fell that decision needs to be made before the close on Wednesday. If you have any insight on this trade or just some news that I may have missed, please leave me a comment.

photo by GeorgeLu

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Two great things that go great together. That seems to be the way it’s going right now and will for some time. Wind power is the talk of the town and with oil bouncing up and down, Wind power play is going to pick up more head-winds.
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T. Boone Pickins has made wind power a more serious play in the energy sectors with his purchase of 667 turbines from General Electric (GE) back in May. Since then more and more companies are coming out to join the crusade. I was trading solar stocks last year and did quite well for the most part, but that was mainly because of First Solar (FSLR). Early this year I started looking into wind power companies and some of these companies I still invest in. Some of the ones I started with were foreign companies, but have pulled back from them since May.
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I don’t know if any of my readers watch Jim Cramer on his show Mad Money, but he did a show a few months ago where he built a windmill from scratch. he spoke about the different companies that are involved in supplying the components to build these wind turbines.
Many of the companies that he profiled on that show I was already looking into and investing in some of them.
The reason I mention penny stocks in the title of this post is because there are some of these wind power companies that can be considered penny stocks. When trading penny stocks I mentioned that there is more risk involved because the company is new and/or doesn’t report earning on a regular basis. With that said I will let you in on some stocks that I think you might like for your portfolio. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Do your research and due diligence first before investing in any stock that someone tells you about.
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Mass Megawatts Wind Power Inc. (OTC BB: MMGW.OB) This company has been around for 10 years and have now started to make progress with their patent design windmills.
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Composite Technologies Corp. (OTC BB: CPTC.OB) Here’s a company that provides the cables to connect the turbines to the grid.
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Mas Tec Inc. (NYSE: MTZ) This stock is no longer considered a penny stock since it trades above $10, but I mention it because it’s probably the best in transferring the power from the turbines to the grid. When I jumped in on this play back in April, it was trading at around $7.50 it now sits at $14.60 at the close Friday.
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Broadwind Energy Inc. (OTC BB: BWEN.OB) This company still trades on the OTCBB, but the price is now at $17.66 as of the close Friday. Only four months ago this company was trading at $9 and it went as high as $29 (I jumped out at $27.50). This company operates on many levels and their wind power division will just take them higher in the future.
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As with these companies that I spoke about, I do plan to get in them again. Make sue the invest is right for you before you make a trade.
Happy Trading.

In the last few years there has been more talk about Financial Planners than ever. It seems that they’re everywhere. They ‘ll solicit you by phone, e-mail, or even through your friends and family. My wife and I were set up to meet a FPC (Financial Planning Consultant) through a co-worker of mine. He came to our house and wanted us to tell him everything about our finances (we knew this days ahead, so we had it ready). The preliminary evaluation was basically in regards to our income and expenses.
After that part was completed he stated that he could have us debt-free within 5 years (that included our mortgage too).
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It just happened that he was able to find a way where we could invest a small percentage of money each week toward our retirement. He put together a portfolio for us at no charge and presented us with an investment plan with a fee of 1.25% per year. He laid out the ground work for us and gave us some material to read over.
At this point of my life I was already looking into getting involved with the stock market. I had a basic knowledge of it, but it wasn’t much. Matter of fact this incident was the final one that made me really learn what the market is all about and make a positive change for my future.
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As I went over the material that he left us. There was a lot of papers that covered everything. There were forms, graph, statistics and much more. While I went over it I noticed that there was a lot of fine print and since I don’t sign anything without reading every word on the document, I went through it. It seems that the 1.25% fee is just his commission. There were many hidden costs involved in being in this plan, including transaction fees,trading fee and withdrawal fees. As it turned out, this financial planner was only looking to finance his own portfolio.
When you look into any professional help, you need to do your research on the company as well as the individual. Take your time and be wise.

Merrill Lynch had a lot of news come out today. I’m not surprised by the amount of it. When you think about it, the financials have been in the forefront of the media for the last twelve months and I believe that it will continue for sometime. From the hell that Freddie and Fannie have been been going through to Indymac being seized by the feds, who knows what news will be next.
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It was announced that Merrill Lynch has reached a settlement with Massachusetts securities regulators. They will be buying back all illiquid auction-rate securities from it’s retail customers with less $3 million in their accounts on record on October 15th.
This agreement will help speed up the timetable for the retail investors to get their money back. This comes two weeks after Merrill Lynch has agreed to voluntarily buy back $12 billion worth of securities from investors beginning Jan. 15th The regulators also reiterated that Merrill would have to buy back securities from retail investors with $100 or less in deposits starting in January
Of course this news came out just hours after Andrew Cuomo stated in a TV interview that he will take the brokerage (ironic that it’s called that) firm to court because of their refusal to settle it’s own investigation.
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The last bit of news that came out is in regards to that Merrill has recruited Citigroup’s lead mortgage trader Jim De Mare. It’s the second mortgage trader that they’ve picked up in the last few weeks. The other is a veteran from Bear Sterns by the name of Mike Nierenberg who also worked at JP Morgan briefly.
It seems that Merrill Lynch is re-building it’s trading business with it’s new leader Tom Montag, a man who was a long time executive at Goldman Sachs.
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I stated before that I stay away from the financial sector for the most part. I can count on one hand how many times that I’ve invested in any financial stocks in the last five years. I’ve been looking at them for the last month or so and I know that these stocks that I’ve mentioned in this post will come back. The sector has taken a beaten and will be for some time, but I will get in on these when I feel the time is right. It’s just not right now.