Medis will present its wares before San Francisco-based investment bank Roth Capital Partners LLC today. Whereas most fuel cells under development by companies around the world are designed for vehicles or power stations, Medis's fuel cell are specially designed for mobile electronic devices, such as mobile computers, hand-held devices, and cellular telephones. This is the reason for the great interest in the company, boosted by the talents of Medis chairman, CEO and secretary Robert K. Lifton, the company's founder and largest shareholder. The share is rising because investors believe in Lifton, a very serious man and marketing whiz, who will unveil the company's promising batteries before investors today. If they like what they see, the share will head north; if not, the cycle will begin again. Obviously, if Medis's launches a promising product, it will be an immensely important technological success, so we'll wait and see what happens.

Arotech, whose share opened 2003 at $0.54, is now traded at $1.45, reflecting a market cap of $112 million, a quarter of Medis's value. Arotech has fallen 25% since the beginning of 2004, and 11% since the beginning of 2005. It has $41 million in sales, a loss of $13.5 million, $4 million in cash, and over $4 million in debts.

Why is Arotech stuck at such a low value? After all, this is a company active in two hot fields: alternative energy sources and defense. I've written before that the market, especially Wall Street, likes focus and clarity. In other words, everything is clear at Medis. The market understands exactly where it is going, and bases the company's value solely on the basis of this dream. But Arotech? The market doesn't like mixing apples and oranges. That's one reason. Even those who claim that the market is wrong and sees Arotech, or Electric Fuel, as it used to be known, as a battery manufacturer, cannot support the company's theory that it's worth a quarter of Medis because it has no sales. It's true that Electric Fuel's deals with Mercedes-Benz were a hit at one time, but years have passed without anything since then, at least as far as I know. All I want to say is that it's quite obvious to me why Medis is rising and Arotech is not, but I reiterate and caution that if Medis doesn't show something electrifying soon, it's market cap will be a frightening fraction of its current value.