🎯 The Strategy (Quick Refresher)

This trade uses the Double-Up Free Stock Strategy:

1. Buy a small position in a solid company
2. Wait (sometimes painfully)
3. When the stock roughly doubles, sell enough shares to recover your initial cash
4. Keep the rest forever — now you’re playing with house money

No leverage. No YOLO. No stress-induced hair loss.

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🧾 The Actual Trade (With Real Math This Time)

📅 March 26, 2024 — Entry

• Bought: 5 shares of Clearway Energy Inc. (CWEN)
• Price: $21.5386
• Total cost: $107.69

At the time, CWEN was:

• Unsexy
• Dividend-paying
• Slightly ignored
  Which is exactly how I like them.

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📅 February 10, 2026 — Partial Exit

• Sold: 3 shares
• Price: $39.17
• Cash received: $117.51

💰 So what did I actually make?

Let’s do it clean:

• Initial investment: –$107.69
• Cash from sale: +$117.51

👉 Net realized profit: +$9.82, and
👉 2 CWEN shares still owned, now fully “free”

At ~$39/share, those 2 shares are worth ~$78 — with zero capital at risk.

Peanuts? Yes.
Correctly executed strategy? Also yes. 🥜➡️📈

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⚡ What Does Clearway Energy Actually Do?

This matters — because CWEN is not a hype stock.

🏭 The Business Model (Simple Version)

Clearway Energy is a clean energy infrastructure owner.

They:

• Own wind farms
• Own solar plants
• Own natural gas power assets
• Sell electricity via long-term contracts (PPAs) to utilities and large buyers

They do not:

• Bet on volatile spot power prices
• Gamble on breakthrough tech
• Depend on consumer sentiment

Think of CWEN as a toll road for electricity.

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🔄 How CWEN Makes Money (Important)

Most of Clearway’s revenue comes from long-term Power Purchase Agreements, often:

• 10–20 years long
• Fixed or inflation-linked pricing
• With utilities or investment-grade counterparties

That means:

• Predictable cash flow
• Lower business risk
• Stable dividends

This is boring — and boring pays.

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🧠 What Makes CWEN Different From Competitors?

Plenty of companies own renewable assets. CWEN stands out because:

1️⃣ Mix of Renewables and Dispatchable Power

CWEN isn’t “all solar, all the time”.

They also own:

• Natural gas plants
• Flexible generation assets

This matters because:

• Solar & wind are intermittent
• Grid operators need reliability

CWEN sits at the intersection of clean energy ideology and grid reality.

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2️⃣ YieldCo Structure (Investor-Friendly)

Clearway is effectively a YieldCo:

• Designed to distribute cash
• Focused on dividends
• Less focused on moonshot growth

This attracts:

• Income investors
• Institutions
• Long-term capital

Which stabilizes the stock.

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3️⃣ Backed by Serious Sponsors

CWEN has historically benefited from sponsorship and asset dropdowns from large energy players. That pipeline matters — it reduces the risk of stagnation.

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🏛️ How CWEN Can Thrive in a Hostile Political Year

This is huge — especially going into 2024–2026.

⚠️ The Political Risk Everyone Fears

• Anti-ESG rhetoric
• Uncertain renewable subsidies
• Elections that threaten climate policy

Sounds scary, right?

✅ Why CWEN Is Less Exposed Than You Think

Clearway is already built.

They are not:

• Waiting for subsidies to exist
• Dependent on new mandates
• Burning cash hoping politics go their way

Their assets:

• Already generate power
• Already sell electricity
• Already produce cash

Even a hostile government still needs:

• Power on the grid
• Stable utilities
• Energy security

And guess what?
Wind farms don’t stop spinning because of elections.

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📊 Why CWEN Looked Attractive in 2024 (Valuation & Fundamentals)

💵 Valuation at Entry (2024)

• P/E: ~low-30s
• Not “cheap”, but reasonable for:
  • Stable cash flows
  • Energy transition exposure
  • Dividend yield

Compared to:

• Tech trading at 50–100x
• Zero-profit clean-tech startups

CWEN looked… sane.

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📈 Growth Without Hype

• Modest revenue growth
• Improving cash flow
• Dividend sustainability

This is compounder logic, not lottery logic.

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🤖 Where AI Actually Fits (No BS)

No, CWEN is not an AI stock.

But AI indirectly helps:

• Data centers = massive power demand
• Grid upgrades = infrastructure spending
• Utilities need reliable baseload + renewables

AI doesn’t hype CWEN — it quietly increases demand for what CWEN already sells: electricity.

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This supports the macro backdrop for companies like CWEN — not their revenue directly.

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😂 Final Reality Check: Is This Life-Changing?

Absolutely not.

But:

• The strategy worked
• The thesis held
• Risk was controlled
• Capital was recycled

And now I own CWEN shares for free, collecting dividends, with upside optionality.

That’s how small, boring wins quietly stack.

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🧠 BUY • SELL • KEEP Verdict

• BUY: When valuation + cash flow make sense
• SELL: Enough to get your money back
• KEEP: The rest, forever, unless the story breaks

Peanuts today.
Maybe pistachios tomorrow.
Still beats panic trading 😄