Consider This Before You Buy Alpha Natural Resources

By Peter Epstein:I've written about selling puts on Walter Energy, (WLT) in the past. On 3 occasions, I've done this and made good returns twice. In this piece, I will describe a way to play the medium-term survival of Patriot Coal for an annualized return of close to 60%. It should go without saying that the following trade idea is high risk.

By The Financial Lexicon:The pummeling coal stocks have taken over the past year or so is quite remarkable. Peabody Energy (BTU) is down 54.78% since its April 4, 2011 high of $73.95. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) is down 74.55% since its January 12, 2011 high of $68.05.

By The Financial Lexicon:In recent weeks, coal stocks have resumed selling off, a process that began in early 2011 only to pause for a bit of consolidation over the past few months.

By Paulo Santos:This article is the result of a commenter's suggestion. The suggestion consisted of investigating what James River Coal (JRCC) looked like just prior to filing bankruptcy back in 2004, and how it looks like today.

By Paulo Santos:This past Wednesday I got curious and decided to analyze several stocks in the coal (KOL) sector in terms of their insolvency risk. For this, I used the Altman Z-score. I couldn't have been more surprised, every stock I analyzed came up as very risky.

By Sammy Pollack:Following better-than-expected news out of the EU, the broad stock market indices -- along with almost all major commodities -- are trading sharply higher Friday. Click to enlarge images.

By Sammy Pollack:Shares of Patriot Coal Corporation (PCX) surged on Tuesday to close higher by more than 30%, despite the lack of any major news. Click to enlarge

ByHorizon Investments:After underperformance of the U.S. coal stocks in 2012 compared with the broad market, I believe 2013 will be a better year for the U.S. coal industry. I am bullish on coal for 2013 due to an expected rise in natural gas prices, a projected increase in coal fired electricity generation, better coal inventory management and an increase in U.S. coal consumption.2012 proved to be a tough year for the U.S. coal industry.