Top Stocks for Hurricane Season, Part 3

Nicholas Irion contributed to this article.

In the first and second installments of the quick-trade hurricane portfolio, we discussed which stocks might see increased revenues to help repair storm damage and get life back to normal. Today, I want to key in on names to avoid or short as a result of the ravages of Mother Nature.

And as I mentioned in the first two parts, the types of trades we're looking for in these stocks are short-term pops, or drops, off of news of a storm, not as longer-term fundamentals plays, unless otherwise stated.

The companies with the highest potential for losses have assets sitting in the Gulf of Mexico corridor. These are the companies to avoid as the reason is self-explanatory -- destruction or damage of their assets. For energy companies that are focused on refining, exploration or production, every hour they are offline (i.e. not pumping, drilling, or processing oil and gas), they are losing money.

Using previous storms as a template, here are companies that stand out to me for their potential negative exposure:

Exploration & Production companies: This group has the most potential exposure to damage from rough weather as the cash spigot of oil and gas is turned off. It is a very simple formula -- spigot off, no revenue and bad -- spigot on, gushing revenue and good. Think of the E&P companies as the opposite trade in oil services stocks mentioned in part two of the series.

On the big-cap front, watch Conoco Phillips (COP Quote), Devon Energy (DVN Quote), EOG Resources (EOG Quote) and Murphy Oil (MUR Quote).