Thanks @ThisIsChris !!

Thank you! The problem with energy companies, in my amateur opinion, is the Solyndra effect.

Alternative energy, I should say.

Good point. Great example of the Govt sinking money into a non-organic industry.

At least, in that specific case

I wish I had invested in wind thirteen years ago. My entire part of the country is full of windmills

I don't even notice them anymore

It’s a fad industry that can capitalize on the political winds.

@Wood-Ape - OK/MN yeah. So many wind farms in TX area too.

Are you thinking Facebook will rebound @SamanthaM ?

Eh, maybe. Not worth following too closely. I’d buy a couple dozen shares if it ever dipped below $150.

Might get a boost after the gics reclassification moves FB to “Communications Services”

One of the amazing things these days is that you can trade in "weather futures" and in "electricity futures"

Right! It’s fascinating what can be considered a commodity

...weather futures?

isn't that literally gambling?

Yeah I love that about the markets. One of the things that has been mind bending for me is Volatility futures, and how they can be thought of as a commodity with cotango

@Jacob for one side of the trade it is probably a hedge against heating costs or poor growth conditions, or whatever else weather effects monetarily

That's brilliant

Let's say one industry is affected by weather that is too cold, and one is affected by weather that is too hot. That way both have an incentive to make the investment, and it ends up being kind of an insurance policy.

Yes! It's so interesting!

I worked at Dairy Queen, which was screwed when the weather was bad. So, a Dairy Queen owner could hedge against bad weather days in the Summer, while another business could hedge against air conditioning cost.

@ThisIsChris @Jacob What would be your opinion of creating a commodity portfolio based on the seasonal cycles rather than the traditional industry cycles?

Well, it depends what you're trying to do

I would love to try it, I'm looking forward to retail brokers having weather futures available.

If you live in an area with high heating cost, it might make sense to hedge against unexpectedly cold days

Not sure if you know of any but I couldn't find any @SamanthaM

Not certain if any exist. Haven’t researched it that heavily though.

@Jacob Great point. Fund could cover a specific territory with consistent seasonal patterns. An example being the mid-Atlantic

@ThisIsChris Great FT article today re GE. “General Electric has an Overactive Imagination.”

@SamanthaM Thanks, I just read it! What do you think?

@SamanthaM To me it was an interesting article, it says to me there is a lot of uncertainty, the problems may be the investors and board of directors, and there's not particularly any reason to think the problems diagnosed by the author will be addressed, though it would be great if they were.

any of you guys ever trade pre/post market?

@Deleted User yeah a lot, especially since I've started trading futures sometimes

I found out robinhood lets you trade 30 minutes pre and 2 hours post for free, so I'm trying to learn up

cause it seems like alot of movement happens outside of market hours

is there anything I should know about it? or is it basically just low volume trading

@Deleted User most of the time it's just low volume trading, although pre-market is interesting as people prepare for the big opening. However after and premarket trading is awesome when a company releases an earnings report

I always thought the morning open was risky, do you usually trade then?

Sometimes quick trades, trying to "scalp" a little bit (ie enter and exit really quickly on momentum)

Because market open is the most frequent time of day for big movements