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Simple: most of the wrong-doers were government officials. I spent 2 years studying the financial crisis for clients. My colleagues and I pegged the start of the crisis as July 23, 2007, which was the earnings release date for Countrywide (the mortgage giant). They took huge write-downs for bad mortgages, which alerted investors that the subprime and exotic mortgages would go bad in an epic way. But, the crisis was born years earlier.Under Clinton, Congress passed a law called the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977 to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining. It was designed to encourage banks and other financial entities to help meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The Act created disincentives to decline low- and moderate-income borrowers. Further, there were activist groups that acted as watchdogs, monitoring these banks and financial institutions for compliance to the Act. Most noteworthy, these groups, also referred to as “community organizers,” were led by many activist lawyers including Barack Obama, which sued banks and financial institutions for alleged non-compliance with the Act. The “community organizers” lawsuits caused the vast majority of banks to alter their lending practices and created a growing number of subprime and exotic mortgage products. These subprime and exotic mortgage products did create a class of borrowers that were otherwise not qualified for their loans based on traditional, safe mortgage and lending practices. The borrowers were not only low- and moderate-income customers, but enterprising people that took advantage of widely offered subprime and exotic mortgage products to buy and “flip” homes, buy homes of their dreams that they struggled to pay.Mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are government entities that make a market in resold mortgage loans. They were involved in the vast majority of all US mortgages (90% +/-). They qualify, underwrite, and guarantee mortgages that they repackage and resell to investors globally. The subprime and exotic mortgage products carried an interest rate premium that was attractive to investors. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac relaxed their underwriting standards in the wake of pressure from investors that wanted higher yields from higher rate mortgage loans. Without Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to qualify, underwrite, and guarantee subprime and exotic mortgage products mortgages, the impact of those mortgages would not have been so far reaching and catastrophic.A good deal of this pressure came from the Federal Government. Congress and the White House encouraged and pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite more and more of these risky loans, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought from local and national banks, mortgage brokers, S&L’s, and other financial institutions (including Wall Street investment banks).Under increasing and relentless pressure from investors looking for higher yields, and pressure from banks, mortgage brokers, S&L’s, and other financial institutions to buy subprime and exotic mortgage products, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought more and more of these mortgages. Most notably, Barney Frank (D-MA) was romantically involved with another man (the vice chairman of Fannie Mae). Also, many other from the US congress (including Chris Dodd D-CT) pressured the mortgage giants into gradually buying more and more of these subprime and exotic mortgage products. In fact, so many of these were purchased and not properly identified or tracked, it was many months before Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could accurately account for the total value of the subprime and exotic mortgages they had on their books.Later, as the crisis unfolded, Dodd and Frank underwrote legislation in reaction to the Crisis and, with others from the Federal Gov’t, shifted blame to greed on Wall Street, and failures in the management of local and regional banks and financial institutions. The Community Organizers shifted the blame to other as well.Hedge funds, private equity firms, Wall Street banks, and nearly every other financial institution had these products in their investment portfolios. Rating agencies, regulators, home appraisers, mortgage brokers, etc. were all contributors or complicit in the contamination of the US economy by unsafe mortgages, which was extensive and pervasive.When subprime bubble burst, it impacted the global economy. Losses were so large and widespread, that firms everywhere faced insolvency. The rest is history.So, the crisis was widespread and in large part caused by well intended legislation taken waaaaay to far.PS. There were MANY people ruined by the aftermath of the crisis. None of whom were part of the Federal Gov’t before, during or after the Crisis. The Crisis is eerily similar to the Savings and Loan crisis, in which 1/3 of all federally insured savings and loan institutions became insolvent overnight when the Federal Gov’t declared that high-yield bonds could not be included in the savings and loan’s required capital. Lax regulatory oversight magnified the magnitude of the crisis, and some believe actually and needlessly caused the crisis.

I have been an investor for over 40 years. I spent 20 as a professional Financial Advisor. I achieved Presidents Club for my firm (Top 50 Advisors in the US).In this answer, I will teach you how to get started managing your money properly, in a well diversified stock portfolio.I buy quality stocks in my portfolio. No penny stocks, no story stocks like this is the next big thing in 5G, Pot stocks, Internet of Things, that sort of thing. Those are quite often pump and dump stories. I might buy one here and there, but only because I have done my research.Penny stocks (anything under $5) are a really dumb idea for investing, and especially beginners. 85% of stocks are owned by institutions (like mutual funds, insurance companies, Pension funds, etc.) Virtually all institutions have bylaws that forbid buying stocks under $5, and some have bylaws demanding they sell if a stock goes below $5. They have those bylaws because statistically, those are lousy investments. If you buy a penny stock, 85% of potential buyers (the institutions) are eliminated. Where is the demand for your stock going to come from? As a result, it is much harder for a $0.50 stock to go to $5 than for a $20 stock to go to $200 simply because 100% of potential buyers have the ability to buy the $20 stock.I do not like buying index funds. First and foremost, I have never been satisfied with being average. Never in my life has that been my goal. By definition that is what index funds are. If you rank all 500 stocks in the S&P 500 by performance, the index will fall between #245 and #255 usually. You own both the best and worst in each sector, and everything in between. Same with sector ETFs. Average.The QQQ (Nasdaq 100) used to be a good ETF. Today, just 6 stocks now account for 50% of the ETF. Those 6 stocks are Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Nvidia, and Google. While they are all great companies, your diversification needs to be greater. Same for the S&P500. Those same 6 stocks make up 25% of the index. Not enough diversification for my taste. This came about because the SPX and the QQQ are market cap weighted indexes.I believe in a diversified portfolio. I have learned from experience that what I think on January 1st will do best this year is not usually the case. Things change. Tech can go flat for many years at a time. In 1999. Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Oracle, and AMAT were the equivalent of FANG today (FB, AAPL, AMZN, NFLX, NVDA, GOOG.) Look at the charts. Some of them have not made their shareholders a dime in 2 decades. The same thing will happen to the FANG stocks someday. (Full disclosure: I personally still own 4 of the 6 FANG stocks. It ain’t over yet.)Rule #1 Always Buy Top Quality - Never, Ever Forget ThisI like buying the #1 or #2 stock in a sector subsector. The reason is quite simple. The company got to that position because they had the right combination of management, marketing, sales, distribution, finances, capitalization, product R&D, etc.Most likely, they also now have the best margins in the business because they do volume. They can afford to spend more total dollars on marketing, but their per unit expense for marketing is less than the competition. Same for R&D, sales, etc. They probably also have patent protection in place.It is really going to be hard for the competition to unseat them. I only buy the #2 company in a sector if their gross margins are comparable to #1, and their net margins are better.Finally, the #1 stock in a subsector has the best capitalization usually. They can not only survive a crisis, but usually take advantage of having access to capital to make acquisitions when their competitors are weak. Or they can increase their marketing and sales efforts while the competition is suffering.I do make exceptions to this rule when I see a trend developing that I think will last. For example, in the Financials subsector Capital Markets (Broker/Dealers, Investment banks, Mutual Funds, etc.) the traditional Wall Street firms just got too greedy. They have lost the next generation.The kids of the baby boomers (I call them the Echo Boomers) think everything should be online and free, or ultra low cost. Boomers do too. They also do not trust the old Wall Street firms, with good reason.However, they have been sold on the concept of owning index funds. You already know my thoughts on them, but that does not matter. The largest creator of index funds is a company named MSCI. They create indexes and funds all over the globe. They create the ETFs that this generation is buying in droves. The funny thing to me is that MSCI was previously known as Morgan Stanley Capital Investments. It’s old school Wall Street creating these ETFs and cashing in. They charge low fees, and they can because once created, they almost have to do nothing to keep collecting the annual fees. MSCI is laughing all the way to the bank. So I bought the stock, even though it is a smaller player in the Capital Markets subsector. MSCI is at the very heart of a new generation of investors. I’ve now had it since 12/31/2018, and it has already more than doubled in price.Market leaders can make tragic mistakes. IBM miscalculated the importance of software for the PC, and the impact of the PC as well. Intel did not see phones as a threat to their PC cpu business until QCOM already owned the phone cpu business. GE management did not understand the derivatives their financial unit was packaging and selling. You must stay diligent.Market Leaders can also do almost unimaginable great deals, like LMT (Lockheed Martin) landing the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter, F-35) deal, manufacturing it in 45 states for political protection, and getting the world’s largest contract ever, which, with upgrades and parts, will likely top $1 trillion in value. Or Nvidia designing graphic chips and getting patent protections in Gaming, Autonomous driving, Artificial Intelligence, 5G, cloud computing, and Video conferencing. Six of the fastest growing businesses worldwide. Awesome job!It is very difficult for a small company to take business from a market leader.It is much, much easier for a market leader to take business from a secondary company.As a result of getting rid of the losers in each sector, I usually outperform the S&P every year. I set a very high bar for my portfolio performance. I currently expect to beat the S&P by 1% per month. I don’t achieve that every month, but I usually manage to beat the S&P by 12% a year. That is a spectacular result in my opinion. You may have higher goals than that, but I have found I am happy achieving that result. Good Luck!Please Note: This is a starting point for you. You will usually find there are companies outperforming the subsector market leader sometimes. Perhaps they have a niche that is fantastic, like MSCI. Over time, you can make adjustments to your portfolio when you see fit. This just gets you off to a very solid start in investing.Three Major Influences on Stock PriceThere are 3 primary things that influence a stock price:The sector accounts for 50% of the move.The market, 30%.Company fundamentals is only responsible for 20%.It is therefore 80% of the battle to focus on the sector and the market. Most beginners focus on company fundamentals. It is the least important.You can own the best stock in a sector, but if the sector and the market are declining, you are likely to be losing money. You can own a lousy stock, but if the sector and the market are advancing, you will likely be making some money.I repeat. It is more important to focus on the sector and the market! Pareto’s 80/20 law.The markets are predictable on a long time basis.If you look at a log chart of the DJIA, the markets have an alternating pattern of a stairstep. They are relatively flat for 17.5 years, then rise for 17.5 years. Timing is everything in the S&P and DJIA on a long-term basis. It’s not that hard to understand why, or do.During the flat stage, the market gains about 2.0% – 2.5% per year. Inflation adjusted, 0-1%.During the riser stage, they gain 15%-17% per year over the entire 17.5 years. It can make you quite wealthy in less than 2 decades!Surprisingly, the flat stage has more volatility and can have some of the most rapid gains. However, it is usually proceeded or followed, or both, by horrendous losses.The riser stage is surprisingly steady growth, with 2-4 periods during the 17.5 years of down markets.During each riser stage, the markets will double 4 times. 2…4…8…16. A $1 will become $16 if you own the index. $30,000 becomes $500,000. If you beat the market by 1% a month, $30,000 becomes $2,500,000.There is a reason this stairstep pattern exists. Once you know it, you can take advantage of it to make a lot more money from your investments.Since inception in August 1896, the DJIA has had 4 flat stages and 3 risers. We are right now at the beginning of the next great rise. These flats and risers are caused by the generational waves in the population. There were 78 million baby boomers. The kids of the baby boomers, which I call the Echo Boomers, consists of a combo of millennials, gen Z, etc. There are 84 million Echo Boomers.Most everyone goes through 5 life stages:Kids,Young Adults,Building a Family,Empty Nest, andRetired.And then one Dead stage. That one is pretty much permanent, but very important.About 95% of your income during your life is during the Build a Family stage and Empty Nest stage.The flats in the markets are when a generation (of 80 Million people) is Building a Family.The riser occurs when that generation are Empty Nesters. Why? When the kids move out, the parents focus on their next big goal, which is paying for their retirement through investing. When you have 80 million people doing that, the markets rise dramatically.The Echo Boomers already control 65% of the income in the US. As such, they are the largest Financial Engine ever created on Planet Earth. Bigger than China! The leading edge of the Echo Boomers have completed the Build a Family stage and are now beginning to become Empty Nesters. Finally, on top of their massive position in income, they will inherit $69 Trillion over the next 20 years free of Federal Tax (unless the tax laws change.)What does this mean for investors? To say the S&P has gone up 10% per year (or whatever number you used) is meaningless. It totally depends on whether the markets are in a flat (Build a Family) or riser (Empty Nest) condition. We can reasonably expect the markets to rise over the next 18 years by over 18% per year until 2037. (That is my estimate and implies DJIA 330,000 (S&P 41,000) by sometime in 2037. Yes, I know 18% sounds crazy big, but it is real. In 2019, the S&P was up 28.8%. The S&P is up 18.6% in 2020 as of August 17, 2020, even after a pandemic.)How to beat the Index – 2 stepsBy making 2 changes from index investing, you can dramatically increase your returns over the next 18 year riser. The first change is to NOT own all the sectors and subsectors like in the index.First step… Get rid of the sectors that are most important during the Build a Family stage, as those sectors will have declining demand. You only want to own the sectors with demand increasing as more and more of those Echo Boomers change their lifestyle while transitioning from Building a Family to Empty Nester.There are 6 major sectors you want to own. These are:HealthcareFinancialsTechnologyCommunications/MediaConsumer DiscretionaryIndustrialsYou probably do NOT want to own all the subsectors in each sector! There are exceptions.Healthcare Subsectors (7, Pick 4 stocks) XLVHealthcareBiotechnologyHealth Care Equipment & SuppliesHealth Care Providers & ServicesHealth Care TechnologyLife Sciences Tools & ServicesTop 10 Holdings (51.01% of Total Assets) of XLV, (Pick 4 stocks (in 4 subsectors))JNJ UNH MRK PFE ABBV ABT TMO AMGN LLY BMYFinancial Subsectors (7, pick 4 stocks) XLFBanksCapital MarketsConsumer FinanceDiversified Financial ServicesInsuranceMortgage REITsCommunications EquipmentTop 10 Holdings (52.78% of Total Assets of XLF) (Pick 4 stocks (in 4 subsectors))BRK.B JPM BAC C WFC BLK SPGI AXP GS CMETechnology Subsectors (6, pick 7 stocks) XLKInformation TechnologyElectronic Equipment, Instruments & ComponentsIT ServicesSemiconductors & Semiconductor EquipmentSoftwareTechnology Hardware, Storage & PeripheralsTop 10 Holdings (69.27% of Total Assets) of XLK (Pick 7 stocks (in 5-7 subsectors))MSFT AAPL V MA INTC NVDA ADBE PYPL CSCO CRMCommunications/Media Subsectors (6, pick 3 stocks) XLCCommunications ServicesDiversified Telecommunication ServicesEntertainmentInteractive Media & ServicesMediaWireless Telecommunication ServicesTop 10 Holdings (77.38% of Total Assets) of XLCFB GOOG GOOGL TMUS NFLX ATVI T CMCSA EA CHTRConsumer Discretionary Subsectors (10, pick 3 stocks) XLYAuto ComponentsAutomobilesDistributorsDiversified Consumer ServicesHotels, Restaurants & LeisureHousehold DurablesInternet & Direct Marketing RetailLeisure ProductsMultiline RetailSpecialty RetailTop 10 Holdings (68.04% of Total Assets) of XLYAMZN HD MCD NKE LOW SBUX BKNG TJX TGT DGIndustrials Subsectors (14, pick 4 stocks) XLIAerospace & DefenseAir Freight & LogisticsAirlinesBuilding ProductsCommercial Services & SuppliesConstruction & EngineeringElectrical EquipmentIndustrial ConglomeratesMachineryMarineProfessional ServicesRoad & RailTrading Companies & DistributorsTransportation InfrastructureTop 10 Holdings (41.20% of Total Assets) of XLIUNP HON BA RTX LMT MMM UPS CAT GE CSXSo, we have 6 major sectors with 50 total subsectors.You do not want stocks in the Utilities, Consumer Staples, Energy, Real Estate, or Basic Materials sectors. Those are Build-A-Family sectors with declining market demand.Out of over 15,000 stocks on the NYSE & Nasdaq combined, those 60 Top 10 (in their sector) stocks make well over 50% of the TOTAL sales and TOTAL profits of all 15,000 US stocks combined.As Willie Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks: “That’s where the money is.”Starting Your PortfolioYou don’t have to do a lot of research to get started. In fact, I would advise against it because it is a lot of work while you still might have some doubts about your abilities and skill.First, pick a broker/dealer who allows you to buy fractional shares. I use M1 Finance because I can set up my portfolio and have deposits automatically purchase everything in the portfolio. For example, I have a 25 stock portfolio with each stock allocated 4%. When I deposit $100, they buy $4 worth of each of my 25 stocks. This keeps me well diversified, with no work to create the trade orders.Keep this in mind. The actual stock price does not matter. A $1 invested in AMZN at $2600/share goes up 10% if AMZN goes up 10%. A $1 investment in a $50 stock goes up 10% if the stock goes up 10%.To get started, go to the Top 10 list for each major sector. Pick the number of stocks I indicated for each sector from that list. No need to spend a lot of time and anguish over your choices. They can be replaced later. With 25 stocks, each is only 4% of your portfolio. If one goes down 20%, you have lost 0.8% of your money. That should not cause you to lose a minute of sleep. O.8% is about how much your portfolio will change every single day. Sometimes up, sometimes down. No big deal! Get used to it.I will make it easy for you:Pick 4 from Health (JNJ, UNH, MRK, PFE, ABBV, ABT, TMO, AMGN, LLY, BMY) (Only 1 red)Pick 4 from Finance (BRK.B, JPM, BAC, C, WFC, BLK, SPGI, AXP, GS, CME)Pick 7 from Technology (AAPL, MSFT, V, MA, INTC, NVDA, ADBE, PYPL, CSCO, CRM)Pick 3 Commun./Media (FB, GOOG, GOOGL, TMUS, NFLX, ATVI, T, CMCSA, EA, CHTR)Pick 3 Consumer Discretionary (AMZN, HD, MCD, NKE, LOW, SBUX, BKNG, TJX, TGT, DG)Pick 4 from Industrials (UNP, HON, BA, RTX, LMT, MMM, UPS, CAT, GE, CSX)This is all you need to do to get started on what to buy in a sector. I will use the Tech sector as an example. The Tech sector ETF has the symbol XLK.Google “Yahoo Finance”. Open it.At the search bar at the top of the Yahoo Finance page, type XLK and hit Enter.A quote summary will come up for Technology Select Sector SPDR fund (XLK)Now select Chart from the menu below, next to where is says Summary. Click on it.Now you see a chart of the XLK. Click on Full Screen at the upper right of the chart.Just above the chart, center of the page, is a selection of time frames. Click on YTD (Year to Date).Now move your mouse over the chart. You will see that a crosshair follows your mouse and the vertical line below the chart it shows the date. Follow the horizontal crosshair line to the right and it shows the price on that date. In the case of XLK, it rose until it peaked on February 19th at $102.79, then the pandemic crash occurred, and it bottomed on March 23 at $70.40.Now, we are interested in what has happened Just because of the pandemic.Go to the menu bar immediately above the chart. The second item is Comparison. Click on it.In the drop box that opens, click on S&P 500. Another box opens. Click on Save.Now you can see that the S&P 500 is clearly being outperformed by the XLK. That’s good! That is what we expect. But we are really only interested in how it is doing since the market crash on March 23.Go to the Menu above the chart and click on Date Range. It has 2 calendars, a “from” and “to”.In the left calendar, the “from” date, Make it March 23, the bottom of the crash. Make the “to” date the current day. Now you can see the percentages on the Right side Since the Market Bottom.Now, we start to add more Comparisons by looking at our TOP 10 stocks in the Tech sector.Click on Comparison. Type in AAPL. Click on Save.You can see that Apple was more or less following the XLK until June 9th, then it started to move up sharply in comparison. Why? There was no news June 9th about Apple that mattered. But the volume at the bottom of an Apple chart shows increased buying of Apple stock on June 9th. It was not until July 31st that we found out why Apple started outperforming the XLK. That is when Apple announced the 4:1 stock split. Trust me, there were people that knew it was coming before July 31. It shows in the volume from June 9th onward if you look at a graph only of Apple stock.No big deal, actually. What is, is!You currently have a chart with XLK, the S&P500, and Apple. Now add the other Top 10 the same way.Click on Comparison. Type in MSFT. Click on Save. Nope. Not keeping pace.Click on Comparison. Type in V. Click on Save. Nope. Try Square. Yep!Click on Comparison. Type in MA. Click on Save. OK Try Paycom. ?Click on Comparison. Type in INTC. Click on Save. Nope. Try AMD or QCOM or LRCX. Those work.Click on Comparison. Type in NVDA. Click on Save. Winner!Click on Comparison. Type in ADBE. Click on Save. Not bad. Try ADSK.Click on Comparison. Type in PYPL. Click on Save. Winner!Click on Comparison. Type in CSCO. Click on Save. Nope. Maybe a Cyber security company like ?Click on Comparison. Type in CRM. Click on Save. Nope. Maybe Rapid7?What Do You want to own? Clearly, AAPL, NVDA, LRCX, PYPL are all doing well, but the others are not keeping pace with the XLK. But we need 7. So let’s try a great cloud computing company. TWILIO. That works. Online payments are working, let’s try online signing documents with DOCUsign. That works! Online collaboration? Slack? Nope. Workday? That works! So now we have 7 fantastic companies that all are outperforming the XLK substantially.So now you get the idea. You want to go to the Church of What’s Working Now in your sector. For idea’s go to the summary quote, and type in a name like MSFT that is not working now. Scroll down, and Yahoo will give you some other suggestions to look at.You can try more if you wish. Just keep this in mind. You want a stock trading more than 250,000 shares a day on average. I actually much prefer more than 500,000 shares a day. This means good liquidity. When the sector decides to move against you, you want that liquidity to get out quickly without taking too bad a beating.You also have to think about the company, and what it does. ZOOM looks good on the chart, but do you really want to own a company whose 2 largest competitors are Google and Microsoft, and they are giving their online collaboration software product away for free? No Thanks!By all means, if you have a favorite stock you wish to own, replace a stock from the same sector. Just do yourself a favor and don’t, for example, choose 4 drug makers from the same Healthcare subsector. It’s kind of hard to make a really big mistake choosing from this TOP 10 list. If you held them 3-5 years, nearly all of them will make you at least some money. They are also safer than SQ, TWLO, etc.Politics also plays a role. If the Democrats return to power, you can expect them to cut defense programs, so LMT, RTX, BA and GE will lag as defense orders get cancelled. Some healthcare stocks would get a boost, like UNH as they own the company that wrote the ACA (Obamacare) laws for their benefit. If Trump wins big, keep LMT, RTX, BA.These 60 TOP 10 stocks will be 75-80% winners no matter who wins the elections. Quite a few of them are so large that lots of growth is difficult to imagine. There are definitely stocks that will outperform many of these 60, but replacing these should be done only with careful research. You will be taking more risk owning some smaller players.I also take the liberty to make some unconventional replacements. For example, I like MSCI, as I described earlier. I also have replaced some Finance stocks with finance related tech stocks. I like tech and I think fintech stocks like Paypal, Square, and Visa are fine for me to hold as Finance picks instead of stodgy old banks. IMHO, they fit into either tech or finance.Remember, this is just a very good, solid starting point for learning how to invest. If you buy a stodgy Top10 stock and it goes up 10%, while a potential replacement goes up 25%, it’s not really that big of deal in the short run because you only have 4% of your money in it. One makes your portfolio go up 0.4% and the other 1.0%. It does matter if there are a dozen or so.You want to keep as many TOP 10 stocks as possible and reasonable. For anything outside the top 10, you need to really start digging deeper into who their market subsector leader is, and understand what they are up against. MSFT and Google will destroy ZOOM at some point. No one will buy ZOOM with MSFT and Google hanging over them giving away the same thing. MSFT or GOOG might buy Zoom for the market share, but also not that likely even though it would only cost them pocket change.Now, I could have told you all 25 I have in one of my portfolio’s, but this starts you on finding out how to separate stocks by sector and how to analyze all the stocks in a sector. That is why I left it up to you.Put your money to work and let them ride for some time, like 6-12 months. You are probably going to have 5 or so lose money in the short term. Probably not too much, so don’t worry about it. Most likely, if you benchmark the stocks against their subsector or sector performance, you will find they basically perform in the same direction as the sector is moving. This is very important to learn.It's more important to learn that your stock selection is moving in a positive manner against the sector movement. If the sector is up 10%, you want your stocks to beat that. When the sector finally gets it’s day in the sun and grows 30% in a short duration, you want to own what beats that. It will happen.You will also find you have 5 or so superstar stocks, far outperforming the markets. Don’t be fooled that the stocks making the most money are your best stocks. Or that you are a freakin’ genious. They’re not and You’re not. Those stocks do not love you and you should not love them. It may just be you have a sector widely outperforming the markets. Learn that! You do it by looking at the sector vs the stock performance over time. Just use the sector ETF, such as XLK for Technology, for sector performance.The rest of your stocks will be somewhere in between and hopefully above the market in performance.Here is what you want to learn. Which stocks go up faster in % than their sector when the sector goes up, and, which of those goes down slower or equal to the sector when the sector goes down? If you can find stocks that work well on both up and down periods, and that includes losing less than the sector in down periods, they will serve you very, very well in the up markets.Once you have your portfolio up and running, now you must learn how to watch it.Set up an email box just for your investments. Then set up email news alerts from each company from their website, and also from your favorite news feeds. You will get a ton of crap initially. You need to read the first 2 or 3 paragraphs and see if it is relevant or not. Over the first couple of months, you want to weed out what goes to junk mail automatically. It should not take you that long to make it really manageable.On a daily basis, look at your 2-5 best and 2-5 worst performing stocks. Then look at their news to see why they were moving. The others in between won’t likely have important news. Just read the headlines for interesting things and erase to keep your mailbox manageable.If there is an article about potential fraud at a company you own, pay attention. If the report is from a hedge fund company or a mutual fund manager, be wary of their motivation. Especially if they did it on TV. If the SEC or DOJ is investigating serious allegations, better to sell and replace it with something else.If a CEO or CFO suddenly resigns unexpectedly and no cause is given, I think it’s best to sell and find out why later. If it is for medical reasons, it is no cause for alarm at all. If they are fired, I tend to sell and find out the reasons later. If they left for a better job for themselves, more opportunity, no big deal.One more very important point. Do not listen to the boneheads on TV. Do not listen to the bigger boneheads in online chat rooms and blogs. They all have motivations different from you! Do your analysis and make your own decisions. That is how you learn to succeed in investing.You are going to make some mistakes along the way. It is just the nature of the beast. Accept it, and take your best step forward. It’s all you can do. Try to understand what happened so you learn to recognize if something similar happens again. Stay calm. Don’t agonize over it. If a stock is making you lose sleep or upsets you every time you look at it in your portfolio, Sell it! Out of sight, out of mind.Sleeping peacefully is better for you.One more thing. You may look at those numbers and think you should only buy tech. No! Now go ccompare the XLF to those stodgy Industrials or Financials since July 9th. Guess what happened? Those funky old sectors are outperforming tech by double this past month. It’s why you have to keep all six sectors in your portfolio. You have to have something from the Church of What’s Working Now at all times.Here is the reason for spending a lot of time designing your portfolio.My goal is to beat the market substantially. As I have said earlier, we are at the very start of a very long bull market, about 18-19 years. In the table below, I illustrate the difference of making an extra little bit of money, ROI, each month.This is what happens to $30K over an 18 year time frame at different rates of return.Annual Monthly $30k grows to10% 0.83% $180,14112% 1.00% $257,35815% 1.25% $438,98318% 1.50% $747,80221% 1.75% $1,272,20024% 2.00% $2,161,51627% 2.25% $3,667,73330% 2.50% $6,215,50232.95% 2.746% $10,422,878Dang! Those little 0.25% monthly increments add up and make a huge difference fast!At 18% annual returns, or 1.5% a month, which is what I believe the market will do over this time frame, a mere $30,000 to start becomes $747,802. Pretty darn good.By beating the market just another .25% per month, that $30,000 becomes $1,272,200. Awesome!I think it is possible to beat the market by 1% a month. In that case, $30,000 becomes $6,215,502.That’s very serious money!After the first 18 months, I have been at 32.95% annually, or 2.746% monthly compounded, while the S&P 500 has returned 1.87% monthly, or 22.5% annually. So I am short of my goal of beating the market by 1% monthly, but I am still ahead of my target of 2.5% monthly.Why it’s worth spending time on it every dayI like owning stocks long term. The taxes are lower and it’s therefore easier to reach investment goals. I use Point & Figure charting, and manually chart all my stocks every day, plus some stocks I have been thinking of buying. I also chart some indexes and sectors. One always must be aware of sector rotations since sectors account for half your success. If you look at the charts, even great subsectors like semiconductors, Internet, software can have years of underperformance.I will repeat it one more time…. You must pay attention to the sectors first and foremost.This may seem like a lot of time but it won’t be long and it will only take you 30 minutes a day. Here is the math why that 30 minutes matters.In 18 years, you will spend 240 days/yr or 120 hours a year doing the work. In 18 years, that is 2160 hours. A year of work.If you spent zero time by buying the S&P index, you end up with your $30,000 worth $747,802.If you end up by beating the market 0.5% a month, you have $2,161,516. So you made an extra $1,413,714 or $654/hr for your time. So just think of that 30 minutes a day as making you $327 each and every day.If you get really good at it and beat the market by 1% a month, you will make an extra $5,467,700 or $2,531/hr.That year of work will potentially get you retired 20-30 years early if you are young and just getting started in investing. You will end up calling it the best spent working year of your life.Do you think it’s worthwhile spending 30 minutes a day after the initial work?Does it really work that way?Yes. I started my portfolio’s on 12/31/2018. 18 months ago. I am running at a 32.95% annual rate after 18 months, including a worldwide pandemic. That’s 2.746% per month, well above the S&P at 22.5% annually and 1.87%/mo. That may not seem too impressive against a lucky pick of 1-5 stocks, but I am doing it with a 50-stock diversified portfolio where everything is not tech.I am running at a rate to make my $30 k into $10 million. It’s just not reasonable at all to expect to stay at this pace but it is fun to dream about. If I get to $2M by 2037, I will be a happy camper. It’s just really nice to be well ahead of the pace to reach my main goal. It makes the work fun.I have 2 portfolios, each with 25 stocks. 4 are shared by both portfolio accounts, I have 9 losers, and 13 that have already made over 100% including 2 up 200%+. My top superstars each has offset all 9 losers combined. Carole….this info is a week old or sol.FYI, I started developing this strategy in 1996. It is well tested in actual practice against real money in mutual funds and ETFs with the exact same sector strategy. The market subsector leaders won by far because I eliminated lots of loser stocks. It’s truly that simple an explanation.I am working on a free website to keep my portfolio open for anyone to follow. If you use M1 for your account, you will be able to automatically link to my portfolio’s for your new purchases. You will also be advised by email/messaging if I make portfolio changes. All free.If you wish to be advised when it is available, let me know. Don’t expect it real soon, as I am working on political stuff through the next few months.

Environmental activists push wind and solar as so called green energy in a campaign based on shoddy science to end reliance of fossil fuel energy. This is a false choice obvious when you look at the manufacture and infrastructure of wind and solar Green energy is as much if not more energy from carbon based fossil fuels as from failing wind and solar made of steel and glass that cause terrible energy poverty. Green energy is not a do good movement, but rather it is a scam because it will never replace fossil fuels and it causes serious increase in electricity prices hitting the poorest with energy poverty.Wind and solar are unreliable sources of energy and become very expensive requiring back up of fossil fuels.This photo shows the back up fossil fuels helping wind turbines .Fareed Zacharia demolishes any hope of wind and solar replacing fossil fuels because of the lack of battery storage capacity.Fareed's Take: Bernie Sanders' magical thinking on climate ...CNN - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos › videos › 2020/02/15 › exp-gps-0216-fareeds-take5 days ago - CNN's Fareed Zakaria gives his take on why Bernie Sanders has an unrealistic approach to achieving deep cuts in carbon emissions.Fareed's Take: Bernie Sanders' magical thinking on climate - CNN VideoFOSSIL FUELS ARE FORMED FROM PLANTS MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO SO THEY ARE A GREEN SOURCE OF ENERGYExplainer: Where fossil fuels come fromSpoiler alert: It’s not from dinosaursThe liquid fuels that power most vehicles have been millions of years in the making.BUNYARIT/ISTOCKPHOTOBy Sarah ZielinskiSeptember 20, 2018 at 5:35 amOne of the most widespread beliefs about fossil fuels — oil, natural gas and coal — is that these substances started out as dinosaurs. There’s even an oil company, Sinclair, that uses an Apatosaurus as its icon. That dino-source story is, however, a myth. What is true: These fuels got their start long, long ago — at a time when those “terrible lizards” still walked the Earth.Fossil fuels store energy in the bonds between the atoms that make up their molecules. Burning the fuels breaks apart those bonds. This releases the energy that originally came from the sun. Green plants had locked up that solar energy within their leaves using photosynthesis, millions of years ago. Animals ate some of those plants, moving that energy up the food web. Others plants just died and decayed.Any of these organisms, when they die, can be turned into fossil fuels, notes Azra Tutuncu. She’s a geoscientist and petroleum engineer at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. But it takes the right conditions, including an oxygen-free (anoxic) environment. And time. A whole lot of time.The coal we burn today got its start some 300 million years ago. Back then, dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But they didn’t get incorporated into coal. Instead, plants in bogs and swamps died. As this greenery sunk to the bottom of those wet areas, it partially decayed and turned into peat. Those wetlands dried out. Other materials then settled down and covered the peat. With heat, pressure and time, that peat transformed into coal. To extract coal, people now have to dig deeply into the earth.Petroleum — oil and natural gas — comes from a process that started in ancient seas. Small organisms called plankton lived, died and sank to the bottom of those oceans. As debris settled down through the water, it covered the dead plankton. Microbes dined on some of the dead. Chemical reactions further transformed these buried materials. Eventually, two substances formed: waxy kerogen and a black tar called bitumen (one of the ingredients of petroleum).Explainer: All crude oil is not alikeThe kerogen can undergo further changes. As debris buries it deeper and deeper, the chemical becomes ever hotter and subjected to more pressure. If conditions become just right, the kerogen transforms into the hydrocarbons (molecules formed from hydrogen and carbon) that we know as crude oil. If temperatures become hotter still, kerogen becomes the even smaller hydrocarbons that we know as natural gas.The hydrocarbons in oil and gas are less dense than the rock and water in Earth’s crust. That prompts them to migrate upward, at least until they get trapped by some ground layer that they can’t move past. When that happens, they gradually build up. This forms a reservoir of them. And they will stay in it until people drill down to release them.Explainer: Where fossil fuels come from | Science News for StudentsGREEN Energy Is The Perfect ScamPosted: November 15, 2018 | Author: Jamie Spry | Filed under: Climatism, Energy Poverty, Failed Green Schemes, Government Grants/Funding, Green Agenda, Green Energy, Renewables, RET, Solar, Unreliables, Wind Farms | Tags: Climate Change Scam, Climatism, Global Warming, Global Warming Scam, Government Subsidies, Grants, Green Energy, Green Energy Failure, green energy scam, Renewable energy, RET, Scam, Solar panels, Solar PV, unreliables, wind energy scam, Wind Farms, wind power‘Green’ Energy Is The Perfect Scam“Renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach.” – Top Google engineers“Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.” – James Hansen (The Godfather of global warming alarmism and former NASA climate chief)“We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.” – Warren Buffett***WESTERN climate-theory-obsessed politicians continue their ruinous obsession with wind and solar ‘energy’. Unreliables that fail dismally wherever installed.ENERGY poverty, blackouts, sky rocketing power bills, grid instability and the destruction of pristine landscapes, flora and fauna among the many costs of low energy-density, weather dependent windmills and solar panels.THIS article out of American Thinker brutally exposes the vast scam that allows these symbolic gestures to the folly of green madness to thrive and somehow survive.*Green Energy is the Perfect ScamBy Norman RogersNovember 12, 2018Green energy is an incredible money-making scam. The promoters of green energy make billions of dollars promoting dumb energy schemes that are completely useless.What makes the scam extremely clever is that the scammers have convinced the public that the purpose of their scam is to improve the environment. The scammers pretend to be earnest environmental advocates.Any really good scam needs endorsements from authoritative-sounding sources. In the case of green energy, the authoritative sources are in on the scam. The beneficiaries of the green energy scam go way beyond the wind and solar industries.Non-profit environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club or Greenpeace, need to be seen as fighting against an urgent looming catastrophe. If they don’t have something dreadful to fight against, no one is going to join their organizations or give them money.Global warming, allegedly caused by carbon dioxide, is the looming catastrophe and green energy is the solution. When the globe failed to warm they renamed the looming catastrophic climate change in place of global warming.Now they blame every instance of bad weather on climate change created by burning coal and oil. What were formerly acts of God are now the fault of the oil and coal companies.Scientists are a special interest group largely financed by the federal government. Global warming is a magnificent gift to the science industry.The industry has been corrupted by pathological science that is primarily intended to increase the flow of money from Washington. Science directed toward discovering the truth is out of fashion.The many scientists that are global warming skeptics don’t exist as far as the science industry is concerned.Government agencies, and the politicians that give the agencies money, have embraced the threat of climate change.It gives them something to do that is more noble, even romantic than highways and making the trains run on time. The government spends billions on subsidizing wind and solar energy.Ironically, electric utility companies love wind and solar green energy. They know perfectly well that wind and solar are useless because wind and solar generate electricity erratically and have to be backed up by reliable conventional electric generating plants.The only economic benefit is the fuel saved in the backup plants when wind or solar is actually generating electricity. But the cost of the wind or solar electricity is much higher than the benefit of fuel saved.Thus, the more wind or solar that you have, the more money you lose. But, electric utilities are regulated by public utility commissions. The amount of profit they are allowed is calculated as a fraction of the utilities’ capital investment.So, the utilities want to make capital investments, even if those investments are wind and solar plants that waste money on a grand scale. The electricity consumers bear the cost and the utilities are allowed a larger profit.In some parts of the country rooftop solar is fashionable. Homeowners who install rooftop solar often save money because the reduction in the cost of electricity from the utility is greater than the cost of solar electricity.These homeowners brag to their friends about how clever they are, and the purveyors of rooftop solar place advertisements claiming that rooftop solar is cheaper than buying electricity from the electric company.This is part of the scam. Rooftop solar is profitable because it is heavily subsidized and because the electric utility is forced, by the governmental authorities, to provide a connection to back up the solar without compensating remuneration.The real cost of rooftop solar electricity, exclusive of subsidies, is around 30-cents per kilowatt-hour and the real benefit is around two cents per kilowatt hour from fuel saved in the utility’s backup plants.The subsidy, financed by taxpayers and electricity consumers, is greater than ninety percent.Hundreds of thousands of homeowners, under the delusion that they have discovered cheaper electricity, are walking and talking advertisements for solar energy.The biggest victim of the green energy scam is the public in general. Everybody pays more taxes and pays more for energy as a consequence of the scam.But the waste of billions of dollars may not be noticeable when spread over the 320 million Americans.The public has been exposed to relentless propaganda promoting green energy as beneficial and less expensive.The public is the greatest victim, but most people don’t know that they are being victimized, so there is little incentive to organize against the scam.There are certain other victims such as the coal industry and coal miners. But these groups mostly don’t understand that they are victimized by a scam.Due to the propaganda, they may actually believe that burning coal is undesirable and dangerous. Thus, they lack a clear mandate to organize against the scam. (Modern coal generating plants are environmentally clean.)The manufacturers of fossil fuel generating plants are beneficiaries, not victims. Wind and solar don’t reduce the demand for fossil fuel plants because wind and solar have to be backed up by traditional plants.A campaign against coal, by the Sierra Club, has resulted in the closing of many coal plants. The closed plants are typically replaced by new natural gas plants.Due to the strain imposed on the electric grid by erratic wind and solar, there are many commercial opportunities for upgrading the traditional components of the electricity grid.Rather than hurting the manufacturers of fossil fuel generating equipment, the green energy movement actually helps them.The green energy scam is the perfect scam because the beneficiaries include many influential individuals and institutions, while the victims are dispersed among large numbers of unorganized people.The few concentrated groups of victims, like coal miners, are psychologically handicapped by propaganda that has convinced them that they, rather than the scammers, are at fault.Wind and solar are truly useless, like having a 6thtoe or an appendix. A detailed exposition on the uselessness of wind and solar is given in my book – Dumb Energy: A Critique of Wind and Solar Energy.Green energy is often justified on the grounds that it reduces carbon dioxide emissions and thus prevents global warming. Of course, global warming, now called climate change, is itself a scam.The science on which the predictions of global warming doom are based is incredibly weak. But, the weak science is presented as if it is reliable by self-interested parties.In any case, wind and solar are very expensive methods of reducing CO2 emissions. Other, far more practical, strategies for reducing CO2 emissions are available.Anyone who criticizes the green energy scam is ruthlessly attacked. Critics are often accused of being in the pay of fossil fuel companies. Fossil fuel companies are too timid to risk the wrath of the green movement, so they hardly ever give money to the critics of the green movement.A favorite line of attack is to accuse the critics of using tobacco company tactics to cover up the danger from using fossil fuels.Critics are often depicted as being mental cases, as when Al Gore said that critics of his global warming promotions were like people who think the moon landing was filmed in a Hollywood studio or think that the Earth is flat.James Hansen, often considered that father of the global warming movement suggested that executives of fossil fuel companies should be sent to jail for crimes against humanity.Green energy is the perfect scam because it is disguised as a do-good movement and the victims are dispersed, unorganized and disarmed by propaganda.Green energy is endorsed by government agencies, environmental non-profits, and scientific groups.These are people that are often seen as sources of reliable information but that, in reality, work to promote their own parochial interests. This is a scam that needs to be exposed.Norman Rogers is the author of the book Dumb Energy and writes often about political and environmental issues.Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on FacebookGreen Energy is the Perfect Scam | American ThinkerINTERMITTENCY IS THE STUMBLING BLOCK FOR RENEWABLESThe heart of the matter is the intermittency of wind and solar when the wind does not blow and sun does not shine at the most inopportune times. The hope was for new battery storage technology to cover the gap. This is not happening. Sadly, I have personal experience working as a director with two truly innovative new battery technology start ups. Both have struggled for 5 years and counting and no light at the end of the tunnel. See the reason -The Battery Cycle – Setting the Record StraightBy Anthony Milewski, Chairman, Cobalt 27March 7, 2019in Technology Metals Edition InsightHow long does it take from a scientific breakthrough to commercial battery production? From discovery of a new material to inclusion into a chemistry to wide spread commercial use can take between 10 and 20 years. The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research has come up with a matrix for thinking about the actual time it takes for this process:·Scientific discovery of a new material(s) or process. There is no time frame for this.·New class of material synthesized. Scientists may spend one to two years on this step.·Prove performance of the half cell. Between two to five years.·Proven performance of lab scale fuel cells. Between two to five years.·Material scale-up, cell testing, and scaling up to pack. Between five to ten years.The implications of this matrix are profound for the batteries that power EVs and should be considered by investors.The Battery Cycle – Setting the Record Straight - Anthony Milewski, Cobalt 27Flat Broke & Busted: German Wind Turbine Maker Senvion’s Spectacular Financial CollapseApril 14, 2019 by stopthesethings 4 CommentsCut the subsidies and the wind industry would disappear in a heartbeat. The business model (read ‘colossal government mandated scam’) has all the hallmarks of an enormous Ponzi scheme – the wind industry’s demise is a matter of when, not if. The withdrawal of subsidies across Europe has taken its toll, as the number of new turbines erected plummets. Twelve countries in the European Union (EU) failed to install “a single wind turbine” last year.Saddled with debt and peddling the world’s worst wind turbines hasn’t helped German turbine maker Senvion, either.Its parent, the Indian outfit Suzlon suffered India’s biggest convertible-bond default in 2012 – was seriously struggling then and isn’t in any better shape now – even a name change to “Senvion” didn’t help.In 2015, a debt-ridden Suzlon and struggling Senvion parted company, with a US firm, Centerbridge Partners throwing €1 billion at the wreckage in the hope some of it could be salvaged.Four years on and it’s clear that Senvion was terminal.Here’s a couple of pieces from Germany on only the latest renewable energy outfit to face total collapse. And the, oh so tragic ‘disaster’, has a run of serious knock-on consequences for wind farms and RE rent seekers here in Australia, as we’ll detail below.Ailing Wind Turbine Maker Senvion Takes Step Toward InsolvencyGreentechmediaJason Deign10 April 2019The German manufacturer is on the ropes amid intense industry competition, and refinancing talks have so far come up short.Shares in Senvion were in free fall Wednesday after the embattled German wind turbine maker announced it was entering a process called self-administration in a last-ditch turnaround attempt.The Hamburg-based manufacturer said the move was to safeguard an ongoing transformation program “after refinancing discussions with lenders have so far not come to a positive conclusion.”According to financial sources cited by Reuters, Senvion needs at least 100 million euros ($112 million) to remain afloat in the short term.Germany’s self-administration law encourages financially stricken companies to declare insolvency early on, and thus increase the chances of a recovery, by allowing leadership teams to retain control of the business with oversight from a supervisor acting on behalf of creditors.Senvion said it is initiating self-administration proceedings at both its main business and its German trading arm.In a press statement, CEO Yves Rannou said: “We aim to use the self-administration proceedings to focus on restoring a profitable and sustainable business for our group [more rapidly]. We are in the process of discussing financing options.”Investors fleeShares tanked on the news, dropping 49 percent in 24 hours to less than €0.50 a share ($0.56). Senvion’s share price has fallen more than 95 percent in the last 12 months.Senvion began a restructuring program in January, and Rannou said this week that the company still has “a fundamentally sound and strong business model.”The company said it had appointed two insolvency administration advisers with “significant experience in successfully delivering self-administered restructuring programs” to work alongside the management team.Senvion also said management has the support of creditors including major shareholder Centerbridge, the U.S.-based private-equity firm, which has pumped €82 million ($92 million) into the turbine business over the last nine months.The company said it would continue with production, services, maintenance and customer support while refocusing operations and initiatives on particular markets, streamlining its product portfolio and looking for efficiency gains.“Industry tension”Aris Karcanias, co-lead of FTI Consulting’s Global Clean Energy Practice, said that while some of the issues facing the turbine maker were company-specific, it was also having to adapt to a “new normal” for wind’s original equipment manufacturers.Industry competition has intensified over the past five years through the introduction of auctions, the consolidation of large manufacturers, the expansion of Chinese players internationally and challenges from solar and other generation technologies, he said.“There is a genuine industry tension,” Karcanias commented. “Market access, really knowing your customers, and being able to continuously reinvent your technological portfolio whilst driving new service revenues [have] become critical to survival.”GreentechmediaGerman wind turbine maker Senvion files for insolvencyReutersAlexander Hübner, Michelle Martin10 April 2019FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A German court on Tuesday approved an application for insolvency from wind turbine manufacturer Senvion, although the company said it was also continuing to look at new funding options and various potential investors had shown interest.The Hamburg-based company, which has more than a billion euros of debt, said it had applied for preliminary self-administration proceedings because refinancing discussions with lenders had not yet been successful.Shares in Senvion were down 40.5 percent at 1519 GMT, having fallen as much as 55 percent earlier in the day.Senvion has faced delays and penalties related to big projects, while the wind industry as a whole has seen falling prices and increased competition as it moves away from governments guaranteeing generous fixed subsidized tariffs for power toward an auction-based system that favors the lowest bidders.Market leaders Siemens Gamesa and Vestas have more pricing power, putting smaller suppliers under pressure.Financial sources had told Reuters Senvion needed at least 100 million euros ($112 million) in the short term to keep operating.“Lenders and major bond holders are currently continuing intensive discussions around a financing offer to secure the continuation of operations which may allow the company to successfully exit this process,” Senvion said in a statement.Two financial sources said hedge funds Anchorage and Davidson Kempner were prepared to put up the 100 million euros in loans that CEO Yves Rannou – who took the helm in January – needs to continue restructuring and clear the backlog of orders that has recently cost the company revenues and profit.The sources said majority shareholder Centerbridge was prepared to accept that but the banks – notably Deutsche Bank and BayernLB – would still need to agree. The banks have lent Senvion a total of 950 million euros.BayernLB and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.Senvion also has 400 million euros in bonds bought by hedge funds including Anchorage and Davidson Kempner.Senvion said its management board would remain in office under the initiated procedure and business operations would carry on, with both existing service and maintenance contracts continuing.The company said the preliminary self-administration proceedings affected Senvion GmbH and a subsidiary called Senvion Deutschland GmbH. It said Senvion S.A., Senvion Topco GmbH and Senvion Holding GmbH were expected to file for insolvency later this week.Senvion’s website says it has around 4,000 employees globally.ReutersNow to the Australian fallout, with this lament from the team over at ruin-economy.Australian wind project owners worried as Senvion faces insolvencyReneweconomySophie Vorrath12 April 2019German wind turbine maker Senvion has entered what it describes as “self-administration proceedings” as the company struggles with debt, delays to projects and increased market competition from its major rivals.The situation has raised concerns for projects and workers in Australia using Senvion technology, or where it is the contractor, including the 212MW Lincoln Gap wind project near Port Augusta in South Australia and the huge Murra Warra development in Victoria.In Australia, Senvion has installed more than 470MW of wind energy generation, with a further 430MW under construction as at September 2018.For its completed projects, Senvion also has full-service agreements for all of these wind farms. A spokeswoman said in a statement: “Senvion Australia is working closely with wind farm owners and contractors to ensure that we can continue to safely deliver and operate wind farms in Australia.”The Hamburg-based company says it had come to the decision to take the action after refinancing discussions with lenders had “so far not come to a positive conclusion.”The company said the move was supported by the company’s main shareholders, lenders and major bond holders, and day-to-day business operations would continue as normal, with the goal of full recovery.“Although we could not yet win some breathing space through a financial restructuring, Senvion has a fundamentally sound and strong business model. Together with all our teams, the management and I are implementing measures to return the company to economic stability,” said CEO Yves Rannou.“By entering the preliminary proceedings under self-administration, we aim to gain the flexibility and speed required to press ahead with the initiated transformation program. We are in the process of discussing financing options. If successful, we may be able to exit the initiated process successfully.”According to Reuters, financial sources say the company needs at €100 million ($A158 million) in the short term to keep operating.ReneweconomyLincoln Gap: Senvion collapse brings project to a halt.Lincoln Gap (just to the west of Port Augusta in SA) is touted as the latest thing in wind farms, with claims that it will have a bigger-than-Ben-Hur battery to account for the weather – ie the fact they can only ever deliver power around 30% of the time and at crazy, random intervals. The project was meant to comprise 59 turbines. However, at last count there are only about 8 or 10 that look anything like complete. With Senvion’s sudden and monumental collapse the chances of completing the balance of the project now, look pretty thin.Adding to our sense of delicious schadenfreude is the fact that the key backer of Nexif (the firm that owns the part finished project) is the one and only Alex Turnbull. Alex is the son of Malcolm, the Liberal PM dumped by his party for his renewable energy obsession.Alex’s relationship with the embattled wind power outfit, Infigen is the stuff of legend: Born Lucky: Stars Align Perfectly for PM’s Son with Mammoth Bet on Wind Power Outfit InfigenAs to the Singapore based Nexif and its stalled Lincoln Gap project, STT understands that Turnbull & Son went to great lengths to secure a power purchase agreement with Snowy Hydro to finance the project, along with a pile of cash from the Federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Another case of it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.Well, it seems that this is one that Daddy can’t fix in a hurry. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.https://stopthesethings.com/2019/04/14/flat-broke-busted-german-wind-turbine-maker-senvions-spectacular-financial-collapse/