Easy Penny Stocks Tips You Can Use To Cash In!

By Sam Lockwood

Penny stocks have been around for a long time - they've been part of American investment strategies since the 19th century. That's where these stocks were named, since the modern penny stock actually costs somewhere between a dime and five dollars, not a penny. Let's have a look at the risks you incur by investing in these stocks, as well as the ways they can help investors profit.

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 in a reasonable fashion means having the business model of the company selling them independently appraised. This is like buying shares in any other company that's being publicly traded. It's important to understand the company's business model, what they're doing, who's competing with them, what they make and what products are being offered.

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 you'll encounter when dealing with these stocks include incomplete and indirect financial reporting, limited liquidity and even complete fraud. People who are playing with a day trading strategy will find that sudden demands for penny stock creates enormous volatility. Penny stocks are hard to short sell for this reason.

Penny stocks have significantly less stringent financial reporting guidelines than listings on the national exchanges, and sometimes a stock will even de list for a few days. In the area of investing referred to as the Pink Sheets, penny stocks are known for having almost no requirements for regulation at all. They have no reporting guidelines or minimum accounting standards.

Because there are no generally accepted standards or standardization for penny stocks, they're an area that's extremely vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. People can pose as independent observers, then run up the price of penny stocks. All they have to do then is de list it, leaving buyer with nothing in what's classically called a pump and dump scheme.

That doesn't mean you should be scared away from these kinds of stocks completely. There are plenty of reasonable startup companies, and they need somewhere to start. If you're able to pick a winner out of them, you'll get a significant return.

If you have the ability to spot companies that have promise, your payout will be huge. Even if you lose on most of your stock picks, the single winner will be such a big gain that you'll forget about the ones that didn't work. - 31987

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