Yup nice jump after they announced the deal. Most other solar stocks joined the fun too. I started doing a little day trade action with Canadian Solar. I'm doing these trades with pretty much 100% loaned capital so I need to sell at the end of the day in order to sleep like a baby but I'm also considering taking a longer position (with my own money of course) in them.
I juggled with this idea with solar for awhile now. I think it is an option in the right direction, but there needs to be another alternative sources to go along with it. Why another source? Quite simple. On a large scale there will not be enough solar panels to supply a small town. There is storage issues (expensive batteries) and the fact that the panels themselves do not give off a big enough charge on it's own. If solar was to work, every household will have to have their own panels and batteries. Batteries are the expensive parts of the equation. I think having a wind and or hydro generator will help out immensely. Mixing these two or three could provide enough energy for your household.
The problem with this is just the amount of electricity that is lost over distance. It sounds great in theory to build huge solar farms in the dessert, but the reality is that unless a huge city is nearby, most of it is lost and the price for wiring that distance is prohibitive. Even something like the Hoover Dam would never be built today
Another solar-related name that I've nibbled on from time to time on both the long and short sides is the Chinese manufacturer Daqo. It's a speculative small cap that is quite volatile - tread lightly if at all.
uhh volatile indeed. I'll keep an eye on it mainly for day trading purposes but that might be it for the moment. Obviously going to go through the financial reports too to see if there this could potentially be a good long term hold too but with such volatility and high P/E I'm mainly looking at this from a day trading point of view.
I have seen a lot of people on here become skeptics of foreign companies. I hope that that goes well for you!
Yeah, you've got to be careful. I tend to invest lightly in those types of things, and usually have a put to protect the downside against a long stock position in a volatile company that is based overseas and also subject to political risk.
Since starting this thread I grabbed a position in TSL, one of the leading Chinese manufacturers. Still tempted by CSIQ too but haven't made up my mind about it yet.
