Maybe international companies but I would not touch any domestic companies. Peabody (BTU) is domestic and has mines in Australia and it is hurting too.

Here is some good reading on the state of coal. It is slowly being replaced with Nat gas,solar and wind.

http://www.wyofile.com/column/managing-coals-decline/

http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/coal.cfm

http://www.smh.com.au/business/ener...wind-power-surge-in-us-as-shale-drilling-and-coal-mining-falter-20151012-gk7gat

 

Internationally they are all hurting. I watch http://www.mining.com/ to see how things are going in all fields. Read at least twice a week. China has been the big driver, but their building bubble has gone flat, so steel demand is down, which kills met coal. Plus the gas boom is spreading for power generation, which also hurts coal. I'm not buying at any price. (Interesting sidelight of the gas boom - gas turbines used for peak demand generation have a short life. Who makes those besides Westinghouse?)

BTW I live in the Ohio River coal country. Another thought I have is that the current bust is going to put a good few producers out of business. Picking the survivors will be key to any long strategy.

 

This is the danger of sector-specific investing (much less subsector investing, e.g. coal and not energy overall). Better to go with a total market fund.

 

Yea, you might get a bounce if oil goes back up, but coal specific sounds risky. Not much upside.

 

Coal is a tough cookie. If wanting to take a flyer, I would search for a company with minimal debt and I wouldn't invest much into it.

They are battling the EPA, OSHA and a eco friendly president. Plus natural gas is cheap. Those are some pretty tough headwinds.

I personally have and recommend (warning internet recommendation!) buying a Commodity-based mutual fund or oil stocks. They have been pounded this year, but commodities are cyclical and your risk is spread.

 

I have been in energy for a long while (XEC,APA,CHK) and overall still have gains there especially in XEC +317%. I have very recently added EOG, OAS. I have been watching mining crash for a long while and just bought GLNCY, BHP, RIO, SLW.
It was an amazing ride until about yesterday. I can wait.
I'm very aware that GLNCY is risky at best. I have some more cash to invest but have not found anything of interest.
There are plenty mining stocks but I'm already to overweight there now.

 

I dropped my Glencore Friday as they have a reporting date coming. I may hop in for a few days if it does not look terrible forecast wise. been looking at ACME some for about 7500 shares as has a ok upside.

Plan to be back in Glencore on the 29th once they report and the market bounces in the stock price some. hoping to sweep up some cheap.

 

Great way to lose money.

 

One has to watch CNBC, or Fox Business news on TV, or read the Wall Street Journal to get the news on various stocks and companies. Google your company and find out how solvent it is, how much debt, how much are sales. Look at the long term of a company. Right now I wouldn't buy coal. Natural gas is taking over the old coal fired boiler plants. Also, like someone said, China is down.

 

I have relatives in the industry.
Stay away, far away.....

 

I used to work for Peabody Energy. You are right, run, don't walk from coal. Employment in the coal industry has done nothing but go down over the years. Some of it is from advances in mining technology/equipment. Recently it is from the closing of coal fired power plants.

Coal went from being about 50% of our electricity generated in 2005 to about 30% today.

 

If you are just looking for a gambling opportunity coal may be a good bet, but I would stick to a dividend paying company just incase you get stuck with it for a few years