Today H2Diesel (OTC BB: HTWO) stock dropped 43% on no news. The only news since I wrote critically about the company five days ago is that the company filed a boring proxy statement. So is it just because of me that the stock has dropped? It seems like this, but sometimes overvalued stocks will fall on no news just because a few people realize that the stock is overvalued.
The decline in the stock price is depressing for me because I considered shorting the stock and would now be a lot richer if I had done that. However, the company has more than made up for this lost income in amusement value. I have already been contacted by a hedge fund manager who is long the stock and by some random person who gave me some information about the company and encouraged me to continue to write critically about it. That critic of the company acted like a spy and used only a pseudonym. Ah, the joy of financial blogging.
Disclosure: I am neither long nor short HTWO. I have worked as a spy for Mossad, the KGB, the CIA, The Church of Scientology, The Illuminati, and the Gou’ald. My disclosure policy, unlike me, is not a traitor to the human race.
Michael,
I am not surprised to read your initial article which was critical of H2Diesel. It sounds like a long shot and if you do some brief internet surfing you will find some quick information about biodiesel at the website of a national organization that has invested heavily into “mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids.” What they do not tell you is what happens when this compound burns in the presence of aluminum. It forms something called formic acid which breaks down to something we are more familiar with called formaldehyde and further the NOx emissions (a green house gas) are higher than that of diesel fuel.
Did you know the supporters of this process (from equipment manufacturers to the seed providers and processors) of making biodiesel come from a long line of companies that have some big agro-business firms as significant investors? Am I a conspiracy theorist? Maybe, but I do know that there are three private companies in the midwest that are making an alternative bio-fuel (EPA licensed) made with primarily vegetable oil, a little catalyst, and a splash of ethanol (one in production for 5 years). This process has no bi-products or co-products, and has overcome the problems that methyl-ester biodiesel has been fighting for years. Namely, when mixed with regular diesel, it will flow freely through your fuel filter at temperatures well below zero degrees (F) without carcinogenic additives. Did I mention that this process also takes significantly less energy in production than methyl-ester?
Why don’t we hear more about this? Because it is being started up by some grassroots innovators that are fighting to stay in business because that same anonymous “Ah” that contacted you also contacts the every regulatory hurdle possible to slow these guys down.
The point to my ramble is to encourage you to continue your focus on investment review. I find it interesting, but please be careful which anonymous voice you decide to follow. H2Diesel is probably really on to something that is socially, environmentally and economically better but it could really hurt the portfolios of the methyl-ester investor.
I should note that my original opinion of H2Diesel was formed solely on the basis of the company’s publicly available financial statements and website. I am generally leery of conspiracy theories.