Westport Innovations (WPT.TO)

Owned off and on. Concept stock and a real business. Strong patents and good relationships. You want to hold over a long time.

(Top Pick Jun 15/12, Up 0.51%) SHORT.

Company has been around a long time and has been hyped a lot for building a natural gas engine. These stocks are like sitting by a window waiting for the postman to come and bring a love letter that never comes. Every couple of years the story gets recycled but the long-term picture is still not clear to him. Speculative.

Tends to be very volatile. Still a bit of a “story” stock after all this time and really a play on conversion of fleets to use natural gas as a fuel. That is coming, but is taking a long time. Someday it will be worth what it trades at on the high-end but have someone look at the chart and Buy it when it has really come off and be prepared to Sell. Nice trader if you are into this.

Short. National bank has had a sell for quite a while. Reported really poor numbers about a week ago. Sees a lot of downside over the next 12-18 months.

Recently cut its revenue forecast. Their specialty is developing natural gas engines and are continuing to cooperate with the major engine producers to try and broaden their product skills. In the shorter term, they are facing headwinds because of the economy and the slowdown in developed market spending. Expect they will tread water for the next little while until it is clear the global economy is picking up and spending on natural gas conversions is really picking up. Always feels it is too expensive.

Stock had a nasty correction this year. There is support at $28. If you enter the stock, don’t let it go below the low it had earlier this year.

Has all the necessary components for a major macro theme, i.e. the energy and power independence of individual sovereign nations. At some point there will be some focus again on an energy program in the US. Is signing some pretty good contracts.