One of the common pitfalls of investing - particularly with small caps - is that great technology and great companies don’t always mean the underlying stock is a great investment. Of course, you have to give a budding company time to capitalize on their technology. Take ZAP (ZAAP) for instance. As a small cap stock investment, this electric car company has been lackluster. However, could it ever be great in the future? Here’s a slice of our thinking (prompted by this reader e-mail)…

I have had Zap stock for sometime and it still isn’t back to my entry point. The new investor and buy off of convertible debt can’t hurt. They are very slow at getting exposure to the market. I want to buy a car but dealers are to far away. Maybe with the $5 million investment they will move ahead with a more aggressive dealer net work.

Thanks for the post - all good things to think about. It’s true the stock hasn’t been much to cheer about. Even with the recent move from 41 cents to 98 cents, the stock is still no higher than it was a year ago.

All we can say is….well, we really can’t say anything. You’ve pretty much seen the good, bad, and ugly here. Capital is key, but even, so there’s never a guarantee. The stock is still in the red for many investors. Will that change? Maybe, but don’t assume that a well-performing company will automatically mean the stock goes higher.

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