Penny stocks are regarded as risky investment instruments for investors because of the many drawbacks associated with them. Illiquidity is usually cited as one of the more popular reasons for this risk as shares of penny stocks don't usually change hands due to the lack of market support and so selling them might not be that easy for investors.
Since a savvy investor looks into the liquidity of his potential investment, understanding penny stocks will help to guide the small cap trader around these challenges. While liquidity is important, its one of several factors.
Remember that most penny stocks are illiquid for a reason: there is no interest in the future potential of the stock. This suggests that either the investing public is completely unaware of the stock (no exposure within the investing community) or when there is a build up of volume, it leads to lower share prices (pump and dump, with insiders dumping their shares).
Before you start to trade penny stocks, its important to research more about the company's potential. Learn not just the idea, but whether or not they can sell their idea. If the company isnt making money, you wont see a genuine increase in share price.
There are plenty of newsletters which will help to highlight this. Of course, one of the challenges with investing in penny stocks is that there is a lack of financial information (especially with pink sheets and some OTCBB listed stocks).
The pink sheets and over-the-counter bulletin board or OTCBB also publish transaction details of penny stocks traded there on a daily basis. These are the first hand sources of information on penny stock trading and investors would benefit by monitoring them.
Many penny stocks are also listed on major exchanges like the NASDAQ as small-cap stocks. These exchanges do require submission of key details on related companies' business operations under their regular disclosure norms.
Buying and understanding penny stocks is just like buying any other type of stock. First, presuming you have an investment account set up, you will need to research your choices. Once you have made a decision based on the due diligence you have collected, its time to buy. Be sure to check the value of commission you will be billed (not all brokerages charge the same fee). Remember, your broker makes money, whether you do or not.
Since penny stocks tend to move quickly, day trading is a popular way in which investors can maximize their gains by trading their stocks, often in the same day. This form of short-term investing indeed takes a lot of guts as short term performance of any particular stock can either swing up or down. Many would be day traders have lost a fortune trading away their hard earned money. Paper trade first before trying this method. Once your money is gone, its gone.
Day traders typically look for a collection of the smallest of gains. Typically, most day traders are happy with an eighth of a point increase in share price. Many day traders are happy with skimming $200 a day in profits (usually for a couple of hours watching the screen).
There are also tax consequences for day trading penny stocks, so, it pays to talk to a tax specialist first to ensure that you are taking advantage of all tax benefits (and avoiding tax drawbacks). Also, it pays to speak to a financial adviser before taking these risks.
Its important that you take your time in understanding penny stocks before you invest in them. The return on that investment of time may be the best investment you make.
Penny Stocks On The Rise
There is a new computer "bot" that has been created that analyzes penny stocks thorough in-depth mathematical analysis and by doing so dramatically decreases the risks and increases the profits from buying penny stocks, while greatly simplifying the work of choosing what stocks to buy and when. Of course, such a system does not come cheaply, but there is an opportunity for even the smallest of investors to reap the benefits of it.
Penny stocks have considerable advantages to small investors as compared to other stock investments. The low stock price allows those with small amounts of money to invest to buy shares of multiple stocks and diversify their portfolios much more than they could with higher value stocks. Because even small dollar and cent changes in price can translate to large percentage changes in the price of penny stocks, good profits can be had with relatively low amounts of money invested.
To show the power of penny stock price changes, let's do a comparison. If you wanted to invest $1000 and found a stock you decided to buy at $100 per share, if it increases by $1 per share, you'll have made $10. On the other hand, if you invested $1000 in a penny stock that initially sold at $1 per share and it increases by $1 per share, you'll make $1000!
Unfortunately, just as penny stock investing can provide very high profits very quickly, buying penny stocks can result in big losses quickly too. Besides the normal risks that occur just from normal market forces, penny stock investing is especially risky due to the relatively high rate of fraudulent practices by sellers of the stock. Corporations that issue penny stock are not required to submit financial statements to the SEC, so it can be hard to find good information that you can rely on when trying to evaluate the stock.
In some instances, hard-sell marketing tactics, such as email spam campaigns, paid promoters making cold calls, exaggerated press releases, and "boiler room" operations may be used to lure unwary investors into buying a stock to drive up the price and then the insiders suddenly sell off their stock at the inflated value, leaving the investors holding the bag as the price drops like a rock. As with any investment, the higher the potential return, the higher the risk, but in penny stocks, the relatively high potential for fraud drives the risk even higher than what is seen in other investments that are simply at the whim of market forces.
Until recently, buying penny stocks required a tremendous amount of research and evaluation of stocks to avoid scams and have a decent chance of getting a good return on investment. A prudent penny stock investor might need to spend hours of work just to evaluate one stock. Done right, this work would likely pay off, but the necessary time investment put the high profitability of penny stock investing out of the reach of casual part-time investors.
A couple of computer geeks who also had an in-depth understanding of penny stock investing have recently developed "Marl", which is a computerized bot that can evaluate hundreds of penny stocks in less time than it would take a human to evaluate just one. Unlike human stock-pickers, Marl is 100% cold and calculating - there's no emotion to cloud his judgement. Although even Marl doesn't have a perfect track record, he's a lot better than any human, and Marl can dramatically decrease the risks involved with penny stocks.
Marl has been so effective that he has allowed for huge gains by advanced investors. Because of this, Marl is considered a bargain at the $28,000 licensing fee, but bargain or not, this is well beyond the means of small investors. There is an option to use Marl that is available to investors with even the smallest of budgets though. The guys that developed Marl put out an e-newsletter that gives Marl's top penny stock pick for each week. For new investors, this might be even better than buying the full Marl program, as it narrows down the investment options to just one stock every week, instead of figuring out what to buy out of hundreds of options. With this, even the most novice of penny stock traders can do well with penny stocks.
Although the inventors of Marl have indicated that they will be limiting their subscriber list to the newsletter and may stop selling new subscriptions in the near future, hopefully they will have compassion for the small investors who need all the help they can get and continue to allow new subscribers long-term. In the meantime, small investors now have an option to dramatically assist them in buying penny stocks.
Both Christopher Smith & George Best are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Christopher Smith has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Management, Finances and Botox. Interested in penny stocks? Get your free today. Find info on. Christopher Smith's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.
George Best has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Allergies and Backpain. George Best is a small investor from San Antonio, Texas. For more about Marl and penny stock investing, visit .. George Best's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.
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