INSIDE: DEAR ABBY, HOROSCOPE, PUZZLES & FEATURES
C1
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2021
bendbulletin.com/business
Bend company
aims to power the
BIG
HOSPITAL
ONES
From left,
Morgan
Edlund, a
University
of Oregon
student, and
Josh Tibbits,
an Oregon
state Univ-
eristy-Cas-
cades grad-
uate, work
on a M13
Methanol to
Hydrogen
Generator
Monday.
Hydrogen fuel cell technology from
Element 1 is ready to hit the market
BY SUZANNE ROIG • The Bulletin
Element 1 founders Robert Schluter and Dave
Edlund know a lot about hydrogen gas — and the Bend
entrepreneurs are about to share that with the world.
After more than a decade,
the pair are ready to market
their hydrogen fuel cell tech-
nology, which can power ships,
trains and stationary applica-
tions like cellular networks,
data centers and hospitals that
rely upon a steady supply of
power. The technology uses
methanol to create hydrogen
through a process that avoids
the need for large tanks to store
hydrogen, which is a clean
source of energy.
“It’s really cool,” said
Schluter. “The fuel cell pro-
duces electricity by using hy-
drogen. It’s cost-effective and
only produces electricity, so it’s
very clean.”
And it’s much lower in cost
because the fuel cell generator
technology can produce a kilo-
watt of hydrogen for $3 to $4,
whereas a kilowatt of hydrogen
can go for as much as $16.
Element 1 was founded in
2010 and has now turned into
a firm employing about 18
people developing and sell-
ing advanced hydrogen gen-
eration technology from its
Bend headquarters on Plateau
Drive and tapping into young
talent at Oregon State Univer-
sity-Cascades. It’s exactly the
kind of company that spurs
economic diversity in the Cen-
tral Oregon economy, said
Roger Lee, Economic Develop-
ment for Central Oregon CEO.
“That’s what is promising
about Element 1,” Lee said.
“It’s the talent. It’s easy for us to
Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photos
Dave Edlund, from left, and Robert Schluter, founders of Element ,
display a golf cart powered by methanol and water feedstock.
say ‘look at this company, they
know the industry and they’re
on to something.’ It’s a natu-
ral for economic development
for us.”
In March the company signed
a letter of intent with Ardmore
Shipping Corp. and Maritime
Partners LLC to deliver the
company’s technology that turns
methanol-to-hydrogen technol-
ogy to the marine sector.
The company’s hydrogen pu-
rification technology converts
methanol and water liquid
feedstock — very dense in hy-
drogen molecules — into pure
fuel-cell grade hydrogen by us-
ing heat, pressure and catalysts.
See Element 1 / C3
New to trading stock? Longtime investor offers some tips
O
n Jan. 28 of this year, the
stock of a waning video
game retail company
called GameStop briefly traded
at $483 per share. Two weeks
earlier, the stock was trading at
just $20 per share.
Insane, right?
That may be, but wildly fluc-
tuating stock prices, and the
traders that cause them to do
so, are not new to the stock
market. Nor are the dreams of
large paydays on the back of
stocks that provide riches over-
night.
FACTS ON
FINANCE
By William Valentine
Given the rising popular-
ity of stock trading, thanks
to GameStop and the likes, it
seems now is a good time for
me to pass on some tips to as-
pirant traders. While my career
has been that of an investor,
not a trader, I have picked up
some concepts that should help
you with your trading.
Tip No. 1: Never trade during
amateur hour
It’s a well-understood fact
among my professional peers
that the market activity that
takes place during the first
60 to 90 minutes of the day is
mostly that of novice traders,
buying and selling at a frenetic
pace. We call this “amateur
hour.” These early risers are
seemingly trying to get ahead
of the rest of the marketplace
as volume picks up throughout
the day.
However, if you watch how
a stock trades during the day,
you’ll notice that whatever
happens in the first hour and
a half is often erased over the
course of the trading day. In
fact, there are studies that show
that whether buying or sell-
ing, you’ll get better pricing if
you wait until amateur hour
is over. Exactly how and why
amateur hour exists, and why it
produces the effect it does, is a
mystery to me. But I don’t have
to understand the dynamics of
amateur hour to appreciate the
wisdom of avoiding it.
Tip No. 2: Set a sell target
Whether you’re buying a
stock for a short-term gain (the
objective of the trader) or a
longer-term gain (the objective
of an investor), one of the most
important things you must do
to enhance the probability of
maximizing your investment
return is to set a sell “target.”
A sell target is a price, or set
of prices, that if triggered, will
cause you to sell the stock. It’s
often said that the hardest part
of trading and investing is not
deciding which stock to buy,
but rather, which point to sell
them.
Let’s say you buy a stock
at $50 per share. You might
set one target to get you out
if things go well at, say, $75.
You might set another target if
things work against you, at, say
$35. The reason these targets
are important is that they take
emotion out of the trade. Too
often, when a stock you buy
at $50 gets to $75, you start to
convince yourself it’s on its way
to $100.
See Stock / C2