As investors we are always looking for the next boom or next big thing.
Currently we are being told that will be "CleanTech" or clean technology.
I guess someone thought CleanTech sounded better than "GreenTech" but it amounts to about the same thing.
The new wave in green has been accentuated by the election of Barack Obama and the stimulus money that Congress is promising for green technologies, many of which are classified as CleanTech.
What kind of technologies specifically are we talking about? One of the best definitions is probably this: "Alternative energy, more efficient power distribution and new ways to store electricity, all with minimal impact to the environment.
" Consumers in the United States have long had a voracious appetite for energy of all types and even more so now with all of the devices desiring long battery life.
Now that appetite is spreading to formerly third world countries in Asia that are suddenly finding themselves affluent enough to afford energy and the products that use it.
Unfortunately, if that energy is produced as it has been for the last century, the environment will suffer.
Many powerful governments and people are committed to not letting that happen.
Enter the investment potential for CleanTech.
When you couple the huge demand for clean energy technology with governments throwing money at it in the way of subsidies and you have companies popping up like dandelions in the Spring trying to capture that money.
Investors and speculators alike are hoping to ride this trend and get rich.
But just as we saw with Uranium a couple of years ago, an investment boom can quickly go bust.
Compound that with the enormous task of wading through hundreds of newly created companies with no real business and it becomes easy for an investor to get burned.
So how can you profit from CleanTech without getting burned? First, you must understand that many companies will exist in name only; name and your money if you invest.
You have to know intimate details about the company claiming to provide clean alternative energy other than just their name.
Second, you will have to keep abreast of the changes in regulations, grants and subsidies that many of these companies will have to operate under and rely upon.
This will be an enormous task.
Third, you need to avoid getting squashed by big investment funds that will move in and out of these stocks on a whim, without notice, causing a lot of volatility.
Think you can handle that? I don't.
Not on my own anyway.
Whenever it comes to a complex business such as this I have to rely on investment newsletters who employ professionals dedicated to exactly this type of work.
And even then there are no guarantees.
If you think you can read up on the internet, get some advice from a free blog, then invest with your hard earned money and never get burned I am afraid you have a painful and costly lesson coming your way.
Sure you might get lucky the first time, markets have a way of sucking you in just like a casino in Vegas.
Are these technology newsletters expensive? Yes and no.
Yes they can cost a lot of money, but if they save you from buying 1000 shares of a $1.
00 stock that is headed to zero, then that investment newsletter has just more than paid for itself.
I think there will be many opportunities to profit from the boom in CleanTech, but I think it will be a path strewn with many landmines.
Avoid the landmines by employing a professional in the field of technology, one who has successfully navigated Silicon Valley for many years.