I’m looking to make a significant (for me anyway) long term investment in alternative energy stocks. There is a lot of volatility and a lot of small-caps so an ETF seems to be the ay to go. So far I’ve found 3 that look interesting and all charge about 0.65% 1) Van Eck Global Al. Energy ETF (GEX) 2) Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Port. (PUW) 3) First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge ETF (QCLN) Any other ETFs or investment ideas you guys might have for this exciting sector would be appreciated.
I think I would be a little more worried about the bid-ask then the management fee.
Nirjraina You might also want to check out these mutual funds… GAAEX - Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund CGAEX - Calvert Global Alternative Energy Fund I’ve got Calvert.
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think I would be a little more worried about the > bid-ask then the management fee. Interesting, why? If you’re going to hold for a long time, isn’t the bid-ask going to be a small blip, whereas the mgmt fee (which looks relatively moderate) will eat some year after year?
b/a spread on some of those guys is 2%. It’s especially significant if you’re an II looking to take a major position, versus a retail guy buying 156 shares.
Got it. I didn’t realize that the bid ask was that big, and obviously gets bigger the larger your lot.
Why is it so big? Is it because the underlying equities are thinly traded?
did you buy tech stocks in march of 2000?
This probably has the most volume and smallest tracking error for Solar exposure TAN - Global Solar Energy ETF
So I was talking to my wife the other day about investing some of her money and she said “What about alternative energy sources like solar power? Oil is so expensive that people will be using lots more of it”. I guess everyone knows that which ought to be a good reason not to invest. The “macro” move to alternative energy depends on technology which is notoriously hard to predict. Don’t we have some better investment ideas?
This is not exactly a sophisticated approach, but I was going to wait for a better entry point. I’m hoping some of these ETFs will lose ground if and when oil prices drop significantly (say back to about $90).
I’ve been thinking (since I have little exposure) ofbuilding up ositions slowly across both traditional and alternative energy. High traditional energy prices will make more alternatives economically viable; these industries are likely to grow faster than traditional energy, and I don’t see energy demand coming down any time soon. Just make sure not to forget coal, since electrical production might start substituting for some oil use.
Coal has performed exceptionally well…thank China. Natural gas has been my play and I think the legs still have plenty of stretching to do. I’m an advocate for Nuclear and I also like the clean coal technologies, but natural gas has the best support from both sides of the aisle, has the infrastructure in place and the US is natural gas rich. Throw in the now economic viability for horizontal drilling of the shales and the increasing demand from diesel --> natural gas conversions and tthat is my favorite traditional and alternative play in the energy space considering current prices.