Street Justice: The Crystal Ball

Heya! I trust everyone is doing well. I'm having a blast! There is a lot going on for me right now and I love it. It won't be an easy journey, but the future is looking very bright. The future was my theme for the 3 companies I have today. 2 of my picks today are "speculative buys", meaning the companies have yet to prove themselves. The 3rd is an I.P.O that has yet to be priced. I went with companies like these today to help my younger readers find some places to put there money with some high risk/reward.
The first "speculative buy" is VLNC/Valence Technology. They develop, manufacture and market lithium phosphate technology based batteries. VLNC's products are used in full electric vehicles, wheelchairs, scooters, robotics, marine vessels, remote power, military applications and other devices. Their numbers are not the greatest, they have some serious debt. They acquired this debt through the development and marketing of their Saphion Battery Technology. This technology is still fairly new and time will tell if VLNC can make it work. I believe they will do just fine. Their batteries have already replaced the NiMH batteries used in the Toyota Prius. With our energy future in question VLNC is helping find an answer. I have the 2007 annual report for VLNC available upon request. My 2nd "speculative buy" is CPST/Capstone Turbine. Capstone develops, manufactures and markets "micro-turbines", which are like big generators or little power-plants. These "micro-turbines" are an emerging market, meaning they are kinda new and not fully established. I see that changing quickly though. These "micro-turbines" are used in a number of industries including the offshore oil drilling industry. Offshore Rigs use "micro-turbines" as a power source because they are the cleanest source of available energy. Just like VLNC, Capstone has quite a bit of debt. That being said there is elevated risk to investing in them. They also are working with a technology that could help power the future, so there is quite a bit of potential for reward in investing in them. For my 3rd company I am moving beyond speculative to not yet existent. SOLR/G.T Solar International is a privately owned company set for I.P.O(initial public offering) on July 23rd 2008. I don't like to suggest I.P.Os usually because they can be even riskier than speculative stocks. I have made an exception for SOLR because they have some unusually attractive qualities, the most attractive being the fact that they DON'T have any debt. I'll get back to the financials in a minute, I want to tell you what they do. As you probably guessed SOLR is in the solar business(one of my favorite sectors). They provide equipment needed to manufacture solar panels, wafers and other components to existing and start-up solar companies. This just scratches the surface of what SOLR really does. They assist and advise solar product manufacturers in all aspects of their businesses, providing "turnkey" services from start-up and throughout operations. SOLR operates in Greece, Taiwan, Korea, China, The US and many other countries around the world. Their major product line includes Poly-silicon and PV equipment used in solar panel and wafer manufacturing. They are the market leaders in the poly-silicon and PV equipment industry. They also have a major market share in cell line and module line sales. GT Solar customers added 80 metric tons of poly-silicon to existing supplies(doubling them)to ensure availability and low cost. One major factor in my decision to recommend SOLR was the fact that they have NO debt, which I already mentioned. What I didn't mention is that they had a 300% increase in income for fiscal 2008. These numbers by themselves are attractive, but I have more. SOLR's customers are required to put a cash deposit of 20-40% of the purchase price on all products and SOLR receives 90% of the money before delivery. It gives me a warm fuzz feeling inside when a company gets paid before they fork over the product. Did I mention SOLR has NO debt? All this stuff sounds great(to me), but there is still no guarantee SOLR will do well as a publicly traded company. I have the prospectus for SOLR for anyone who is interested and you can watch their I.P.O presentation at www.retailroadshow.com or if you're reading on my blogspot blog, check out the New Kids On The Block(I.P.Os) section.
If I weren't such an optimist, I would be very worried after the past few days. I am an optimist though, so I dust myself off after a day like today and look at what has worked for me. I still like some tech companies and energy companies, but I am still avoiding banks(except NYB) and airlines. Staying diversified is the key to surviving in times like these.
The 3 companies I mentioned today were "speculative buys". What's your opinion on companies like these? Do you like taking chances in emerging markets? Or, are there just too many scams involving over-hyping companies out there? Let me know.
I'm still not regretting holding my current forex positions. My strategy of anchoring my portfolio by being long the AUD/USD is working nicely. Any losses I take being long the dollar elsewhere are recouped by the Aussie. I am going to hold my long USD/JPY and short EUR/USD positions for the rest of the week. If the VIX levels out we may see some dollar support(keeping oil in mind).
I've been thinking of changing the blog up a bit. I may play around with some ideas I've had. I will still use reliable facts and data in my research, I just wanna spice it up a bit. Hopefully the 3 companies I gave you today should do just that for your portfolio(spice it up), cause we're all in this together. Thanks for reading.