Camino Energy

Consistent with our index methodology, when needed we will modify our indices between reviews.   In this case PNE3.DE (Plambeck Neue Energien Ag) was removed from the Renewable Genco index due to small market capitalization.   This change resulted from an improvement in our market capitalization computation that more accurately valued the company.   A more complete review of index members for all indices will be conducted during our January update. 

ETF sponsors continue to add products in an effort to leverage the strong interest in sustainable energy.   Growing from PowerShares’ initial entry (PBW) in 2005, we saw two additional ETFs introduced in 2006, and an additional four in 2007.   Of the seven ETFs, only PBW with assets of $1.1 billion USD has attracted assets in excess of $100 million USD.  And total trading volume for the seven securities is a relatively small $600k USD per day.    The table below summarizes our research: 

Notes:  ADV = average daily volume. 

Sources:  Morningstar, Fund Sponsors, Yahoo Finance 

We’re not sure what explains this slow start for index based investing in sustainable energy but the sector is still relatively new with little track record for many of the companies Camino tracks.   We think the lack of history, and the multitude of business strategies being pursued by sustainable energy companies, have made it difficult for many investors to understand the sector and to invest in the indicies.   That’s why Camino has worked hard to carefully determine what the companies are doing and to make this information available in our database and our PurePlay indicies.    Camino offers product licenses for the PurePlay indexes to investment product sponsors to serve their strategic needs.

Camino has added a new “Energy Navigator” to graphically display the flow of energy in production, transformation, and use.  The Energy Navigator is accessed from the Home and Research pages. The display is dynamically linked to Camino’s database and enables creation of company dashboards for top companies with a single click.  The dashboards link to:

• - tearsheet reports;
• - company news for individual companies or the group; and
• - stock charting for individual companies or the group.

Registered user may now create custom “Watch Lists” of companies.  The feature is accessed through the Reseach page and allows users to create company dashboards for any number of company groups….like custom indicies.   The dashboard report has also been improved to provide a market cap total for the companies included in the report and the report is now deployed throughout the system to display index members, custom search results, Energy Navigator results, and watch list results.