2 Hot Hydrogen Stocks Right Now

To be honest, the strong rally we are seeing in the stock market right now has me a bit confused. I look around at a country with around fifteen percent unemployment, experiencing one of the sharpest shocks to GDP in living memory, with both the Fed and the Federal government taking desperate measures to prop things up, with over $23 trillion and growing of government debt, with rioting in the streets, and with a President once again picking a trade fight with a massive trading partner for political purposes. Then I look at the stock market making back nearly all the lost ground and sitting around ten percent below the highs and I just scratch my head.

Still, a move or trend doesn’t have to make sense for me to trade it.

Whether it is sustainable or not, risk is in vogue right now. Pot stocks like Canopy Growth (CGC) and Tilray (TLRY) have bounced one hundred and three hundred percent respectively off their lows. BTC/USD has roughly doubled from its early March low. Tesla (TSLA) is trading at 243x forward earnings that themselves don’t seem to be considering the possibility of reduced appeal of the vehicles with gas prices at multiyear lows….and the list goes on.

I learned a long time ago though that even though a move may make no sense to you whatsoever, opposing it can be expensive. It is far easier, and usually more profitable to go with the flow. Setting fairly tight stops, then adjusting them upward should you see a profit on such a trade is a good idea that, if nothing else, keeps you sane but ultimately, crazy times are about momentum, not contrarianism.

So, in the context of energy, it may be a good time to buy the energy version of pot stocks, fuel cell companies.

I know, I know, a lot of sober commentators will tell you that fuel cell stocks like FCEL and BLDP are massively overhyped. The story is great; I mean, what could be better than a power source fueled by hydrogen, the most abundant element on earth? The problem though is that nobody in the business has any history of making money, and as any viewer of Shark Tank will know, that is the only proof of concept that really counts.

It seems, however, that little things like profitability are not the point right now. Stock traders and investors remember the lessons of 2009-10 and are more scared of being left on the sidelines during a recovery than they are of buying a dud. That is an ideal market for stocks like BLDP and FCEL.

Keep in mind though that buying BLDP and FCEL is a trade idea, not an investment thesis. I guess if the idea could be sufficiently scaled to bring costs down and improve efficiency, fuel cells could be the energy source of the future. For now, though electric vehicles (EVs) have won the battle to be the future of cars, leaving fuel cell technology in the dust.

However, in a full “risk on” trading environment, the forty to fifty percent discount from the highs of these two stocks looks quite attractive.

From a long-term perspective, of course, it doesn’t make sense to buy them, but then nor does it make sense for the broad market to be soaring while the economy is a disaster zone. Obviously, sense is just SOOOO 2019, and if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.