Ok this isn't Investing 102 totally but I was watching Jim Cramer last night (which I never do) and he was talking about a couple potential hot areas this year. Two of them I had already thought had potential, one being cloud computing for which he mentioned a company I've never heard of, VM Ware, and the other natural gas which he suggested Kinder-Morgan for.
I don't know if any of you have any experience with cloud computing but it seems to me like that's where data storage is going. If you've ever heard of Dropbox, Evernote, SugarSync, iCloud you know what I'm talking about. I use Evernote and it's extremely handy to have your info on your phone and your computer without having to do anything. The syncing possibilities for your data are almost endless.
I haven't looked into it yet but VM Ware is owned by EMC but operates as a separate software subsidiary. I'm certainly not recommending it but hoping to maybe spur a little discussion about it.
On natural gas Cramer said it's selling here for $2.50 or so but sells overseas for $14-16. This is where Kinder-Morgan comes in, they have and operate the pipelines that move this stuff around. With all the talk about big diesel going to natural gas, it looks like an area of growth to me. Obama is speaking about this soon in Vegas at a UPS facility that runs all it's trucks on natural gas.
Greg this is where you come in, being a big Kinder-Morgan fan. They have 3 different stocks, KMR, KMP, and KMI one of which according to Cramer is much more tax advantageous than the others. Since you are a fan of them, maybe you could elaborate on the differences among the 3 for me and the rest of the readers.
I would love to hear any other thoughts on the cloud computing thing, I know this may be more of the speculative portion of investing but it feels the same to me as it did a few years ago when I was wondering why everyone needs a cell phone.