The money in my 401K was so convervatively placed during the last year that it actually increased in value by nearly 4%. With stock prices so incredibly low during the recent downturn a month ago I decided to move this money to a rollover IRA that allows my to buy and sell stocks myself. I did this because I considered the low priced stock market to one of the greatest investment opportunities of my lifetime.
My main concern with this is the need to wait until the economy starts picking up before investing, but history shows that delays like that certainly avoids the initial 30% upturn in the stock market generally as the economy improves.
So far my portfolio is up 6%,and this indicates my decision may have been ideally placed. For anyone interested in my stock picks in the recently created portfolio, check out my wish list in my profile where I also included my purchase prices (or average purchase prices).
Cheers,
NBagger
Nanotechnology
Thursday December 20, 2007
Nanotechnology is defined as the ability to manipulate matter at the molecular and at the atomic scales. There is enormous potential for disruptive innovation in many different industries, ranging from electronic data storage to water filtration to clean energy (and many others). However this has been a difficult and tricky industry to invest in because the fascinating advances in the science and technology do not always translate to substantial revenues and profits for the many companies involved. Large established multinational companies like IBM, GE, 3M, Dupont, Dow Chemical, HP, Intel and others have made impressive strides in nanotech R&D. However there are a number of startups seeking to profit from the nanotech though most of them are still private.
Harris and Harris (TINY) has invested in over 30 private nanotech startup companies, and I strongly feel that at least a couple of them and more likely a dozen or so will make stunning breakthroughs in many areas that will enhance the quality of life for all of us. A few other publicly traded nanotech small cap companies are Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI), Nanophase (NANX), API Nanotronics (APIO), Lumera (LMRA). ArrowHead Research Corp (ARWR), and Accelrys (ACCL). There is even a nanotech mutual fund with symbol FTNATX.
Here is a recent article on Forbes about nanotechnology:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/14/nanotech-outlook-conference-tech-cz_bu_1214technano.html?partner=yahootix
-NBagger
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