here's a post from a yahoo message board with some idea's on natural gas plays and some other sector plays.
Yahoo! Message Boards: IMH
Re: Here's the deal.
by: everyoneelseiswrong (35/M) 07/20/03 02:37 pm
Msg: 17908 of 17910
I owned PVX for a while and did quite well with it. I think the fundamentals for Natgas and Oil are screamingly positive, both here and abroad. If your time frame is on the order of years I would also seriously look into energy suppliers to the Asian markets, particularly China. I'm not the first one with this idea, so you might see if you can buy after a technical correction. Despite what many are saying the fundamentals for housing, at least based on my reading, do not support today's inflated prices. In contrast the fundamentals for oil/natgas do support these current prices.
As with all of the oil/gas producers it is important to have a real good understanding of reserves and company's methods for growing their business (is it through issuance of secondaries to finance acquisitions or do they rely more on internal exploration and development, for example).
Not only is the supply/demand equation for oil/gas producers positive, but since they deal in commodities you get the added benefit of a hedge against inflation and currency fluctuations. Make sure you understand the currency issues, though, if you invest in producers in another country (as well as the complex tax issues!)
No one can say for sure when the bubble will burst, and there is always risk in getting out too early and missing a big move. But in today's market I think capital preservation is more important than trying to maximize profits. As always reward is proportional to risk.
brew
P.S. as far as other investments I personally like the following ideas (none of which are original): Chinese infrastructure, Resource driven economies (e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and especially Argentina and Brazil which are very cheap now), Commodities esp. coffee, sugar, and cocoa.
