Day Trading Penny Stocks – Here’s How People Make Money
Since the 19th century, penny stocks have been part of the American investment world. This is where the stocks got their names, since modern penny stocks almost never cost a penny. They’re usually more like ten cents to five dollars. Now, let’s look at the risks of working with penny stocks, then the opportunities they can provide.
Penny stocks are share offerings made by companies that are either too new or too small to be listed in the major exchanges. These have a potential to grow a lot for a relatively small initial investment, but they can also be part of unpleasant pump and dump schemes. Like anything else in the over the counter (OTC) market, the buyer should beware.
Choosing penny stocks reasonably means that you need to have an independent appraisal of the company’s business model. Much like buying shares of any other kind of publicly traded company, it’s necessary to understand everything about the company. That means knowing what they do, what they make, what products are offered, how their business model works and who their major competitors are.
One of the things that makes penny stocks so appealing is the fact that most of the businesses offering them are extremely simple. One typical kind of penny stock is a mining company that profits only when the price of the material it extracts goes above a certain level. There are also some oil exploration stocks that are valued in the same way.
Penny stocks are rated as a high risk vehicle by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Some of the risks involved include incomplete or indirect reporting of finances, fraud, and limited liquidity. People playing using a day trading strategy, sudden demand on penny stocks can create wide ranging volatility, which also makes it hard to short sell them.
The financial reporting guidelines on penny stocks are actually pretty loose. Unlike the national exchanges, not much is required of companies that list this way – in fact, sometimes these stocks will just de list for a few days! In the investment type called Pink Sheets, penny stocks have nearly no regulatory requirements at all, including few to no minimum accounting standards or reporting guidelines.
Due to this lack of standardization, this kind of stock is extremely vulnerable to being manipulated and even used for fraud. People posing as independent observers will use their influence to run up penny stock prices, then they’ll sell and delist the stock. This is the classic scam referred to as pump and dump.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should never invest in penny stocks. There are lots of real, legitimate startup companies out there, and they need to have a good place to get up and running. If you’re able to pick a winner, you’ll get an impressive return.
If you’re able to spot a company with lots of promise, you could get an enormous payday. Even if you lose four out of five of your picks, the single winner you get will give you enough to forget about the other losses.
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