Investing - Theory, News & General • Individual Stock Confession

Back in 2002 - before I was knowledgeable about index investing - I was excited by the promise of clean, stable, firm energy offered via fuel cell technology and I bought 75 shares of Fuel Cell Energy (FCEL) for $500 (a lot of money for me at the time). I doubled my investment, sold half and have seen the shares and investment dwindle to next to nothing as the company executed a number of reverse stock splits so they could stay listed on the exchange.

Today, I was listening to a podcast discussing the huge growth of Bloom Energy due to their fuel cell technology which provides clean, stable, firm energy.

BE has returned 980%; FCEL has returned - 97%

So, my instincts were directionally correct, but my execution was very, very wrong.

This is a great reminder that with my "success" with stock picking, it's best to stick with index funds:

https://testfol.io/?s=7Uc5P8Cu1OY

Statistics: Posted by id0ntkn0wjack — Thu Sep 17, 2026 1:40 pm