Member Info for Fuelcellinvestor

As we await news, whether from ABB or elsewhere, it looks like someone is happy to offload at under 63p. It continues to baffle me that there are so many shares still available at these prices, especially given the reasonably heavy trading over the last week in the 60-65p range and the fact that the last placing was at 64.5p, but the seller(s) will presumably eventually run out of shares.

As quite a few people have been saying since the June update, AB has pretty much nailed his colours to the mast by saying that he expected multiple orders, multiple new products and other progress this calendar year. Whatever else he may be, AB is not a fool and he will know that there will be incredible pressure on him to go if he does not deliver this time.

Some slippage on certain aspects would be accepted, provided that it is a "when" not an "if", but he only really has a few weeks to start to put the pieces together if he wants to keep his job.

In the absence of anything to the contrary, and AB plus his fellow directors would have a duty to report any issues, my hope is that (as has happened a couple of times late in the year) there is about to be a rich vein of output from the company, with this including a lot of key updates in the imminent end of year report but time will tell.

In the meantime, I see that the army of people spreading fear and doubt is growing. Presumably, some are genuinely concerned but I suspect that many simply want to try to undermine the share price for their own ends. As ever, DYOR and let's see what AB and the company can manage in the current climate which seems to be as good as it ever has been for the sector.

The Fool does seem to be mentioning AFC more and more these days, with some of their scattergun commentary becoming more positive. Who knows, maybe AFC will start to sign more contracts and we will see a flurry of positive articles from the Fool and elsewhere...

https://www.fool.co.uk/2021/11/05/some-of-the-best-penny-stocks-to-buy-in-november/

Clean energy
The green energy sector offers some interesting penny stocks. Among them, AFC Energy is trading at 64p as I write. AFC develops alkaline fuel cell systems, which use hydrogen. As an alternative to battery storage, they offer high electrical and cost efficiency. The share price is up more than 250% over the past 12 months.

The big risk I see is that it’s hard to tell who will be successful at this early stage. AFC isn’t yet profitable, so that’s an extra risk. But it does seem to be attracting a lot of partnership interest. And it seems to have enough cash, for now.

7.4% down with relentless kamikaze AT trade sells. There is nothing suspicious about that at all! This really is back to being a day trader's toy as we await substantive news.

Thanks, Croqman. Whatever the case, it has been a very effective walk down today and some on here will be delighted!

Oggs, I am not suggesting that the funds should trade, just that funds who are looking to increase or initiate their positions in AFC could take advantage of the drops to do so.

Good points, Sturmtrooper. What surprises me is that more investors, including funds, don't predict the game and buy into the drops more quickly. It is still possible that AFC will release some news during COP26 but I agree that the end of year report is now more likely to come out after AB returns to the office, whenever that is, and I hope that it will contain lots of interesting news including about the trip to COP26.

Whilst I accept that ups and downs are part of the AIM game. these low volume walkdowns are getting more and more ridiculous. With under 1.5million shares traded (about 0.2% of the shares in issue) and there is a 5% drop. Add in that "buys" and "sells" are nearly equal and it gets even more ridiculous. I guess that we are stuck with this nonsense in the absence of major news but I still do not understand why these tactics work every time, only to bounce back pretty much every time afterwards.

We need to factor n that today the MMs are playing the old trick of letting lots of "buys" go through just under the mid-price, making them appear as sell. This used to happen a lot in previous sharp rises but it has been less prevalent recently. Whatever the case, IMHO it links back to my earlier point about institutions/funds buying in as the sector gains traction again and as AFC's profile shoots up, especially after the demo yesterday, but let's see where this goes for the rest of the year.

Whilst it seems to be very difficult to get accurate figures on which funds/institutions are investing in AFC, it really does look like more and more are getting onboard. Quite a few have been mentioned on here over the months but, fur example, I don't recall seeing Assenagon Asset Management SA before and they seem to have 14,481,989 shares.

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/factsheet-data/factsheet/GB00B18S7B29-afc-energy/profile

Let's hope for regular news updates over the next couple of weeks, Haggis, including about those events on your list, as we await something substantial to drop! It is a shame that today's news came on another red day (so far) for the sector but life goes on.

You have to laugh when "shareholders" try to turn an undeniably positive development into something negative. Not only does the demonstration to Charles mean that there is likely to be a tremendous amount of publicity from the event itself but, even more importantly, it means that AFC is likely to be showcasing the fuel cell at multiple locations, especially as AFC have already confirmed that AB will be attending various meetings.

Meanwhile, the derampers will try to encourage others to give up hope but it is starting to look like AFC is in the right place at the right time afterall, with today's news release just being a warm-up one rather than some kind of recognition that there is no real news to report!

It is almost the exact opposite. Yesterday, it opened up, suddenly dropped back at about 9am and then gradually dropped further throughout the day, ending 7% down. Today, it opened down, suddenly jumped up at about 9am and is showing some strength. If that is what is meant by "similar" then I will happily take a 7% rise today!

The trading pattern definitely didn't pass the smell test today but that seems to be the case more and more these days when there are extended periods of time without major news, especially immediately before major news drops. Time will tell as ever.

Well, there have certainly been better days than a 7% drop day. Let's see what tomorrow brings, including quite possibly the annual update as it was released on 3rd November last year. There must surely be a lot of progress to report (even if this has yet to turn into sales) as AFC has got so many new staff and new facilities, with them always saying that everyone is flat out (and too busy to attend the British Motor show for example).

No doubt quite a few people on here pretend to be shareholders when they are just short-term traders, with them being more than happy to do the opposite of what they claim to be doing if it fits their agenda. Sadly, these scare tactics seem to work on enough people each time to make it worth their while but, hopefully, AFC will finally provide some proper newsflow to put an end to this and push these wolves in sheep's clothing onto other shares.

It does look like yet another one of those strange downward pressure days where neither the overall pattern of trades nor the wider sector performance seem to justify the resulting drop. As ever, we will never know what has actually caused this but, as with many previous times, there is a good chance that the SP will bounce back once the cause of the downward pressure is removed (e.g. the seller cleared or the shorts closed). Of course, some positive news from the company would help...

Meanwhile, I note that the aggressive selling is continuing as I write.

Good to see Surrey University plugging their work with AFC today:

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/creating-clean-energy-technology

Creating clean energy technology
As the world prepares for COP26, we focus on University research tackling climate catastrophe. Today, we meet Professor John Varcoe, who’s helping create the next generation of ionic membranes for clean energy technologies.

John's research champions the emerging technology of hydrogen fuel cells as a clean source of energy

A long-time academic in our Department of Chemistry, John’s current research projects focus on developing materials for sustainable electrochemical technologies – and, as he reports, one research area could eventually provide a carbon negative option.

Hydrogen power
“One area we’re researching is hydrogen fuel cells,” says John. “One of the advantages of these is that they use hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen in a non-combustion process to produce energy, heat and water. It’s a clean energy source that does not emit the 'greenhouse gas' carbon dioxide if the hydrogen is produced from electrolysis of water using renewable electricity.

“We create a polymer membrane to act as a key component of such a fuel cell. The polymers, which are made cheaply in the lab, allow fuel cells to be developed with minimal use of scare precious metals, such as platinum. Our alkaline membrane fuel cell concept facilitates the use of earth-abundant metal catalysts.

“Our projects in this field are in partnership with local company AFC Energy in Dunsfold and Newcastle University.”...

There must be something in the air as even the Fool is backing AFC and the person who wrote this article actually seems to understand roughly what AFC does (for a change).

https://www.fool.co.uk/2021/10/28/my-top-renewable-energy-stocks-for-2022-and-beyond/

Speculative renewable energy stocks
Working through the list of different organisations in reverse, my favourite speculative investment right now is the hydrogen company AFC Energy (LSE: AFC).

There are a range of different hydrogen companies on the market, all working with experimental technologies. However, I feel more comfortable with AFC than I do with its peers.

The firm is developing alkaline fuel cell systems that use hydrogen to produce clean electricity. It already has a product out there on the market. AFC’s energy system is being used as the primary power source for Extreme E’s race vehicles.

The system is able to create hydrogen using solar power, which can then be stored and used to charge electric vehicle batteries when needed.

The company’s involvement in this event has ignited interest in the technology. It has also shown it is possible to produce clean, green hydrogen without significant capital expenditure.

Even though it could be years before the business actually makes money, and there is no guarantee this technology will have commercial potential, I would buy the stock for my portfolio today as a speculative play.

Tennents, let's hope that AFC gets a slice of the pie.