Preception: "the corn ethanol scam"

In a story that will hopefully be turned from Macro to Micro this year, this article shows how the Corn Ethanol Industry was piled on and referred to last February as the "the corn ethanol scam". The industry, as measured by the BDI index, instead is in the middle of a turnaround and out preformed the DOW for 2009. Take a look at the list of companies in the index.
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"However, perception and reality have significantly diverged in this case."

For the year, the Biofuels Digest Index portfolio of stocks gained 17.48 percent to a 1/2/09 close of 66.28 – and is up more than 2.7 percent for 2010 to date, as well. By contrast, the S&P 500 was up 19.67 percent for the corresponding period and the DJI was up 15.43 percent.

BDI stocks for 2009 were: Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), The Andersons (ANDE), Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR), Bluefire Ethanol (BFRE.OB), Biofuel Energy (BIOF), British Petroleum (BP), Cosan (CZZ), Environmental Power (EPG), GreenShift (GERS.OB), Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE), GreenHunter (GRH), Gushan Environmental Energy (GU), Lignol (LEC.V), Momentum Biofuels (MMBF.OB), OriginOil (OOIL.OB), PetroAlgae (PALG.OB), Pure Biofuels (PBOF.OB), Pacific Ethanol (PEIX), Raven Biofuels (RVBF.OB), Sustainable Power (SSTP.PK), SunOpta (STKL), Syntec Biofuel (SYBF.OB), Texcom (TEXC.PK), Valero (VLO) and Verenium (VRNM).

The Index is weighted to reflect both company size and the importance within the sector.
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(I am guessing Greenshift was not selected for its market cap/size! That would only leave its importance in the sector.)

http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2010/01/06/biofuels-digest-index-outperforms-dow-jones-industrials-in-2009/

SkunK