Investing in 'Forgotten' Nanotech with Harris & Harris

The Stock Masters submit: After nearly a decade of hype and false starts, the National Science Foundation forecasts that $1 trillion worth of nanotechnology-enabled products will be on the market by 2015. This year, corporations and governments will spend more than $11 billion on nanotechnology research.

However, investors have been burned (charred to a crisp actually) by the big Nanotech hype back in January of 2004. Remember that? George W. Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act in 2003, and continued mentioning nanotech throughout the year. Investors went nuts, buying anything with nano in the name - pushing stocks like Nanogen, Inc (NGEN) and Nanophase Technologies Corporation (NANX) well above $10 a share.

Fast-forward to 2006, and Nanotech been forgotten again - and that's good news for investors like you and I. Nanotech is still a long-term sector, and the best time to get in for the long haul is right now, before another hype wave brings the speculators back in.

I can't recommend stocks like NGEN and NANX right now, though - too much risk.

Enter TINY (TINY).

Since 2002, Harris & Harris has made 30 investments in startups that specialize in what it calls `tiny technology'. Charles Harris switched to nano-only deals that year, making Harris & Harris the only publicly traded VC firm devoted exclusively to nanotechnology. To underscore the point, he changed the firm's Nasdaq ticker to TINY.

A full list of the companies TINY has invested in can be viewed here.

TINY is currently trading close to the bottom of its 52 week range. If you're looking to broaden your portfolio with a stock that is fairly low risk and has the potential for big returns over the next 5-10 years, you should include TINY in your long term portfolio.

By Phil McCallister for The Stock Masters.