It's unclear when, but at some point natural-gas prices must converge toward the marginal cost of production (the cost of pulling the last bit from the ground), which I'd estimate at $5 to $6 per million cubic feet, in order that producers have proper economic incentive to drill. Fixed-income guru Jeff Gundlach seems to agree. At a recent conference, he quipped: "I know it's early, but if I were a crazy hedge fund, I'd go long natural gas, short Apple, and leverage 100 times." The upshot is that some of the sector's best operators are trading near multi-year lows. A few names I'd expect to hear among potential value picks are Ultra Petroleum ( NYS: UPL ), Halliburton ( NYS: HAL ), and Apache ( NYS: APA ). 2. A new technology paradigm? Technology companies represent a funny riddle for traditionalist value-types.