Most people who have read my other articles on Seeking Alpha or subscribed to my investment newsletter have figured out by now I believe the shale gas/oil revolution occurring within the United States is a big deal. It is probably, in my opinion, one of the largest investment opportunities currently available.

In past articles, I have explained my investment logic for my favorite natural gas infrastructure, transportation and production companies. The most important factor influencing my conclusion is the relative value of natural gas as compared to diesel fuel.

This value comparison is so important that I developed a proprietary chart (seen below) to help quantify my investment analysis.

(click to enlarge)

©RulingTheMarkets.com™

This pricing chart graphically illustrates the pricing differential between diesel and natural gas through December 2012. This pricing differential is the single most important factor for investing in natural gas related companies.

Obviously, natural gas

The story...

Most people who have read my other articles on Seeking Alpha or subscribed to my newsletter have figured out by now I believe the shale gas/oil revolution occurring within the United States is a big deal. Probably, in my opinion, one of the largest investment opportunities currently available. In past articles, I have detailed out my favorite infrastructure and transportation companies. Today, I am going to discuss the "production" side of the equation.

After decades of declining domestic oil production, high international crude prices have provided the motivation to develop new drilling technologies for conventional and unconventional wells. Technologies like horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and drill bit advancements have all worked in conjunction with each other to help make US exploration and production economically viable.

Many investors have heard of the shale oil/gas areas of the country experiencing rapid economic prosperity. Bakken in North Dakota, Utica

General Electric's (GE) stock performance has been a disaster for the last 12 years. The time has come for the company to focus less on GE Capital and more on the industrial side of the business where large-scale opportunities currently exist.

GE's management has stated publicly, on several occasions, that a spin-off of GE Capital is not being considered. The main-stream media however, continually suggests a spin-off as a viable option. I think the press is wrong and they should just drop the subject. The industrial and financial businesses work in harmony together, each leveraging the other's expertise.

So, if a large transformational spin-off is not an option, what can GE do to kick start growth over the next decade and deliver some value to the long-term shareholder? What industries should they focus on to grow and what types of strategic acquisitions should they be reviewing?

The mainstream energy outlook

Background

Nautilus Minerals (NUS.TO or NUSMF.PK) appeared to be on track to be the first company to economically mine minerals from the ocean floor using underwater robotics. About 70% of the earth is covered by water and virtually none of it has been mined for precious metals. If Nautilus were to be successful, the opportunity would be enormous. We have been following the company since June when unfortunately, Nautilus got tangled up in a contractual disagreement with the State of Papua New Guinea - PNG - and the stock got crushed - dropping from about $2.25 to 90c in a few days.

The disagreement is now in arbitration in Sydney, Australia, and the parties are hopefully working through their differences. Management has stated their intentions are to work with the government of PNG and to resolve any issues outside of the courts amicably.

Bullish Case

Nautilus has first-mover advantage in

A company that will benefit greatly from the macroeconomic events unfolding now in the natural gas market is Westport Innovations (WPRT). I discussed, in detail, the migration to natural gas for a transportation fuel in my article titled "The Case for Natural Gas as a Transportation Fuel".

(Click to enlarge)

Within that article, written in March 2012, I explored the pricing differential between diesel and natural gas costs. Since March, fuel prices have gone through a period of dramatic change and I thought it prudent to revisit our analysis. By reviewing critical points we can determine if the investment thesis still holds true or needs to be adjusted.

(click to enlarge)

The chart above graphically illustrates the

The European debt problems have sent the volatility index higher and the options market has finally started pricing in some risk premium. I think you should consider taking advantage of this additional premium and write some puts on market leaders like Cisco (CSCO). I recently discussed another option strategy for Apple (AAPL) titled "Bullish Case for Apple: Time To Get Long On This Market Meltdown."

Assuming your pile of money lying around is not unlimited, you must decide what to invest in and why. Whether it is stocks, bonds, commodities or a Ferrari, you must first analyze the business case for your investments -- otherwise, you'd be called an idiot.

Cisco is attractive for a few reasons:

• A huge amount of net cash on its balance sheet -- about $32 billion
• A very low forward P/E of around 5.5, once you take the "cash/investment component" out of the

Apple (AAPL) does not have any "direct" competition. You could argue they compete with DELL (DELL), Microsoft (MSFT), content delivery companies like Netflix (NFLX), networking companies like Cisco (CSCO), or server manufactures like Hewlett Packard (HP), but currently there is no direct comparison to the business model Apple has created.

In my prior analysis of Westport Innovation (WPRT) on Seeking Alpha, I detailed out the frame-work I use at RulingTheMarkets.com to analyze potential investments and how this analysis results in higher success rates. Let's use this analysis framework and apply it to our review of Apple .

When making longer-term investments how can I best place the odds of success in my favor?

Assuming your pile of money lying around is not unlimited, you must decide what to invest in, and why. Whether it is stocks, bonds, commodities or a Ferrari, you must first analyze the business case for

<< Return to Part 2

Westport Innovations

I have discussed Westport Innovations (WPRT) at length in my article "Bullish Case for Westport Innovations" and the macroeconomics behind natural gas as a primary fuel source within "The Case for Natural Gas Related Stocks".

Based on the number of times those articles have been read - there is quite a bit of interest relative to WPRT within the Seeking Alpha community.

So, I took it upon myself to dive a bit further into three important areas within WPRT's business model in a three part series. Part one detailed their "Strategic and Business Alliances", part two explained a "Capital Efficient Business Model" and part three is below.

Part 3 - "Intellectual Property Overview"

WPRT has an industry leading intellectual property position. This IP position gives them a competitive technological advantage over industry participants. The data below is from

The Moving Parts within a Natural Resource Company's Reserve Calculation

Many investors I talk with seem confused by a company's "reserve calculation" and the impact lower commodity prices have on total reserves and the related balance sheet, income statement and cash flow effects. I have discussed at length the natural gas market in my "Bullish Case for Natural Gas as a Transportation Fuel".

In the coming months several natural gas producers will need to write-down their assets (some companies already started in Q1 of 2012). This balance sheet, asset write-down is a direct result of lower natural gas prices and is an attempt to calculate the new asset value based on the current natural gas pricing reality. Companies like Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Devon Energy (DVN), Apache Corporation (APA), EOG Resources (EOG), EnCana Corporation (ECA), Range Resources (RRC) and many others will all be required to review their reserve

<< Return to Part 1

I have discussed Westport Innovations (WPRT) at length in my article "Bullish Case For Westport Innovations" and the macroeconomics behind natural gas as a primary fuel source within "The Case for Natural Gas Related Stocks".

Based on the number of times those articles have been read - there is quite a bit of interest relative to WPRT within the Seeking Alpha community.

So, I took it upon myself to dive a bit further into three important areas within WPRT's business model in a three part series. Part one detailed their "Strategic and Business Alliances", part two, is below, and discusses their "Capital Efficient Business Model" and part three next week, will be about "Intellectual Property".

Part 2 - "Capital Efficient Business Model"

Capital efficiency / leverage can be defined as:

• The ratio of output in comparison to the amount

April 30th, I detailed out my Bullish Case for Boston Scientific (BSX), on May 8th, BSX announced FDA approval of their new pacemaker line-up.

Update

To varying degrees, BSX has been hindered in the pacemaker market for a few years due to lack of home monitoring capabilities. Home monitoring has given St Jude (STJ) and Medtronic (MDT) a way to differentiate their product.

With the approval on Monday, the landscape has changed and now BSX has the newest most compelling pacemaker products on the market. These leading-class products will help our bullish case for BSX and provide for competitive advantages over STJ and MDT products.

Note: Medical devices are extremely complicated. I plan on highlighting the big picture functionality and not detailing out why one algorithm is better than another.

So, let us review some of the positive developments that could result in a larger market share for BSX.

I have discussed Westport Innovations (WPRT) at length in my article "Bullish Case For Westport Innovations" and the macroeconomics behind natural gas as a primary fuel source within "The Case for Natural Gas Related Stocks".

Based on the number of times those articles have been read - there is quite a bit of interest relative to WPRT within the Seeking Alpha community.

So, I took it upon myself to dive a bit further into three important areas within WPRT's business model in a three part series. Part one, is below, and will detail their "Strategic and Business Alliances", part two, will focus on their "Capital Efficient Business Model" and part three will be about "Intellectual Property".

Part 1 - "The Valuable Strategic and Business Alliances"

First, I should mention that almost everyone who manufactures an engine is involved with or wants to be involved with Westport

There's a bullish nugget for Westport (WPRT) investors from the Cummins (CMI) conference call (full transcript) on Tuesday, May 1st at the 41:10 mark. Cummins Chairman and CEO, Tom Linebarger, completely blows off a specific question regarding the 15-liter engine and the difference between traditional spark ignition and Westport Innovations high pressure direct injection (HPDI) technology.

Here is the transcript and my editorial comments / opinions.

Question: Ann Duignan from JPM

Hi, good morning guys - Its Ann Duignan. um Could you talk a little bit about your 15-liter natural gas engines spark ignition um your competitors have been pretty vocal out there in the market place talking about the fact that um a 15-liter spark ignition simply wont work um or will work technically but you will give up a lot of power and fuel efficiency. Could you just talk a little bit about your strategy

Bullish Case for Boston Scientific Corp (BSX) market capitalization $9 billion.

Industry related companies

• Medtronic (MDT) market capitalization of $39 billion
• St Jude (STJ) market capitalization of $12 billion

In my prior analysis of Westport Innovations (WPRT) on Seeking Alpha (article can be seen here) I detailed the frame work I use to analyze potential investments and how this results in higher success rates or better odds of success.

When investing how should I place the odds in my favor when making a longer term investment?

Assuming your pile of money lying around is not unlimited, you must decide what to invest in, and why. Whether it is stocks, bonds, commodities or a Ferrari you must first analyze the business case for your long-term investments and underlying technical case, - or you're an idiot.

The next critical item relates to the timing of your investment and applies

Some of the readers of my last article The Long-Term Bullish Case For Natural Gas Related Stocks emailed me at my web page with the question: "How do I know when to buy Westport Innovations, Chart Industries, Cheniere Energy or Clean Energy Fuels?"

A major point is you will never "know" with complete certainty the perfect timing to make an investment. What you want to do is to place the odds of success in your favor. Nothing in life is certain and just so in the same way, nothing on Wall Street is certain. However, individual investors can increase their odds of success by:

1. Reviewing the macro factors driving an industry (the big picture analysis)
2. Reviewing the specific company fundamentals
3. Considering the timing of their investments

For this discussion, I am going to use Westport Innovations (WPRT) as my example case.

Bullish Ideas: Westport Innovations in focus

<< Return to Part 1

This is part 2 of my discussion of natural gas related stocks.

How many trucks operate in the U.S.? What is the magnitude of potential savings?

Government statistics conservatively estimate 2 million moderate to heavy duty vehicles (class 5 - 8) operate in the United States. Industry experts assume 30%-40% of the class 5-8 trucks are considered "high mileage" vehicles. A high mileage vehicle is defined as traveling more than 80,000 to 160,000 miles (or more) annually. These are the trucks that will benefit significantly by utilizing lower cost fuel. Companies like Wal-Mart (WMT), Waste Management (WM), United Parcel Service (UPS), FedEx (FDX), JB Hunt (JBHT), Swift Transportation (SWFT), Old Dominion Freight (ODFL), Con-way (CNW) all benefit.

For illustrative purposes we will calculate the savings on 30% of the

The Bright Idea

The business case for the adoption of natural gas as a primary transportation fuel.

The migration to utilize natural gas for transportation fuel is based on sound business economics. Efficiently run companies always find ways of becoming more profitable by squeezing every last drop from their cost structure. Companies routinely chase after very marginal cost savings opportunities. Moving from diesel to natural gas for a logistics fuel has the current potential to save companies 50% per gallon on their fuel costs. This equates to millions and million of dollars in benefits for shareholders in companies like FedEx (FDX), UPS (UPS), Wal-Mart (WMT), Waste Management (WM), PepsiCo (PEP), and Coca-Cola (KO) just to name a few. Companies will rush to implement changes when millions of dollars are on the line and a competitive cost structure advantage over peers.

The natural gas train has left the station and adoption