PowerSwitch

Hi
We all have different ways of safeguarding our assets and preparing for the inevitable. I know there a few people on here with various investments - wondering if anyone is interested in sharing? I'm coming from the position of having a bit of cash, no room to store anything and filling time with training etc. so that's covered.

Personally I have a long position in the following, not too worried if they come down in the short-term, but they are all posting record profits, apart from the speculatives and have great fundamentals:

60% cash. Euro.
25% physical gold and silver - not concerned if there is a major pullback because these have doubled in value since I bought them.

15% Shares:

Energy:
LDK Solar - silicon plant due to come on line this yr
Renesolar (SOL)
Suntech (STP) - thin film solar
Evergreen Solar (ESLR) Ribbon string technology
Applied Materials (AMAT) Solar thin film
Axt Inc (AXTI) Semi conductor - gallium manufacturer - thin film solar
Western Geopower (WGP) - canadian geothermal - highly speculative
GEX: Renewal energy fund

Miners:
Gold Canyon Resources (GCU) - Massive gallium reserves in Canada
Aquarius Platinum (AQP)
Southern Copper Corp (PCU) - Mine a lot of polymetals in addition to Copper
Nova Gold (NG) - Canadian Gold Miner with huge reserves
Thompson Creek (TC) - Molybdenum miner with large reserves

Agriculture:
John Deere (DE) - Play on biofuel, irrigation etc.
Agrium (AGU) - Fertiliser manufacturer

Water:
Powershares (PHO) - Infrastructure and water play

Pharma:
Bioquell (BQE) - cost effective, fairly low-tech treatment for MRSA in hospitals

I know a lot of you see systemic financial breakdown as rendering these irrelevant, but it's money I am happy to risk in the medium term, and even in the 1930's some stocks gained.

Do Solar Century have shares? Or come to that the various other firms who make all that marvellous kit that PS-ers buy?

Are there any forestry shares?

Grinu, do you have any recommendations for a euro bank account?

Not sure to be honest. I recently moved to Ireland so that's why it's euros. I think the euro will come under a lot of strain over the back end of this year because Germany is starting to slow and Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal are at the edge of a fairly scary looking precipice.

You could search for a currency ETF, which you could invest in via a stockbroker. Currency trading is very risky because so many factors come into play. There is talk on the fringes that some of the poorer performing euro counties may end up dropping out of the euro to gain control of fiscal policy, which would have a devasting effect on the euro.

Some of the solar companies I listed above manufacture components that are bought by solar manufacturers. AMAT manufacture thin-film production equipment and are quite cheap at present because their profits are being pushed by demand destruction for LCD tv's etc. But solar is providing an ever-increasing proportion of their profits.

I think you are right to say that the Euro isn't a panacea and that betting on currencies is risky. My feeling is that Sterling will be worth off (relatively) than the Euro because of our deteriorating balance of payments situation.

grinu wrote:Not sure to be honest. I recently moved to Ireland so that's why it's euros.

Welcome.

It's as good a place to be as some others and much better than most! North, south, east, west?

RenewableCandy wrote:Do Solar Century have shares? Or come to that the various other firms who make all that marvellous kit that PS-ers buy?

Are there any forestry shares?

i-shares timber & forestry etf (Ticker symbol WOOD) may be worth a look though this one seems to be in a downward trend at present.

i-shares global clean energy etf (INRG)

Lyxor world water etf (LWAT) for another long term possibility.

I'm thinking about dipping my toe back in the investment waters but that's all I'm doing at the moment...just thinking.

Norfolk In Chance wrote:

RenewableCandy wrote:Do Solar Century have shares? Or come to that the various other firms who make all that marvellous kit that PS-ers buy?

Are there any forestry shares?

i-shares timber & forestry etf (Ticker symbol WOOD) may be worth a look though this one seems to be in a downward trend at present.

i-shares global clean energy etf (INRG)

Lyxor world water etf (LWAT) for another long term possibility.

I'm thinking about dipping my toe back in the investment waters but that's all I'm doing at the moment...just thinking.

Thanks...will have to scrape some savings together, mind...

Hi Palindrome, currently just south of Dublin.

grinu wrote:Not sure to be honest. I recently moved to Ireland so that's why it's euros. I think the euro will come under a lot of strain over the back end of this year because Germany is starting to slow and Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal are at the edge of a fairly scary looking precipice.

You could mix it up a bit with some Yen and Swiss Francs if that's worrying you.

At the moment I'm 90% deposit account (Euros) and 10% in a mixed commodities fund - done very well (so far!). If Spanish banks show any signs of getting into trouble - none have so far - it's sock under the bed time! ( actually thats not where it will be, but do you think I'd tell you lot?)

grinu wrote:Hi Palindrome, currently just south of Dublin.

Never mind. We all have our crosses to bear.

Investments... hmm...

More woodworking tools
Upgrade the fencing to make it easier to milk the sheep
A root cellar. With a small 20W PV-setup for interior lighting.
Restore the blacksmith workshop

I wonder if these people would be worth investing in?

http://winebysail.canalblog.com/

Earlier this year I put money into Euros, commodities (HSBC), extraction (JPMorgan), ethical (Jupiter) and renewables (Triodos).

It's a bit early to say whether it was worth the effort rather than just keeping the money in cash. The Jupiter Ecology fund has started to go down. I think (hope) the government's new rush for renewables is good news for the Triodos fund.

I played it safe recently with the proceeds of my flat sale and put it into cash. I don't see us facing hyperinflation in the next couple of years but the government if the govenment keeps bailing out failing banks that's likely to erode the value.

Still toying with buying gold but they're not yet accepting it as payment in my local hight street.