These stocks have done well this year as oil and gas prices have risen. But it may be late in the day to make big money in a trend that has become so clear to everyone. Besides, energy isn't the place to find consistent growth over the long term. Oil price spikes correct themselves if the market is allowed to work. That's what has the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries so worried.
Energy is a cyclical business.
It can make big short-term moves up and down, but over the long run its growth is sluggish. Even the famously cyclical semiconductor industry looks a lot more growthy than energy when you take a multi-year view. Yes, chips go boom and bust, but when you draw a line through these fluctuations, it points strongly upward. As the Semiconductor Industry Association notes, the industry has tended to run in four-year cycles, but over the past 40 years it has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent. At this point, semiconductor sales are hitting new all-time highs nearly five years after their last peak.