# penny stocks questions



## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

anyone into penny stocks? i have a few questions as a potential new stock trader:

-good sites for info on penny stocks?
-good daily newsletter for leads?
-does questrade broker penny stocks?
-is their demo software decent for me to start learning how to do trades?


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## jamiechese (Jul 13, 2010)

If you are a new trader and have never done any investing before I would HIGHLY reccomend you stay away from penny stocks. I see the main problem with penny stocks is that they are very very small companies and are extremely volatile. Also a lot of the time their financial statements can be incorrect etc. Also usually people trading them are all basing their opinons on speculation and not what is actually going on in a company.

If you are new to trading I reccomend you get to know a bit more about it before going headlong into that type of trading.

Also, most of the websites on penny stocks are all out there to get people to buy into penny stocks because if they hold a position in it before they post an article and then release that article and get their readers to invest in it, they profit. So honestly it isnt worth it.

About quest trade, I believe they do allow you to do penny stocks, most likely most brokers do allow you to do it. Although honestly I would hold off on opening an account at Questrade just yet because ive heard their resources are minimum to NONE and their customer support is pretty bad. I would say look at the article below before you make your decision on what broker to go with....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...vey/article1348448/singlepage/#articlecontent
EDIT: Here is a second article with a chart of the brokers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...ngs/breaking-down-the-brokers/article1345958/

Note: Notice how questrade ranks second last? That isnt a good sign, and they say their resources are crap....so unless you can find your own strong resources. (Hint, check out Qtrade...).


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## jason26 (Apr 6, 2009)

There is a lot of bad comments on Questrade, but I've had my TFSA with them for about a year. Its my account for speculative trades and I do sometimes buy stock worth under $.35.. Not sure what constitutes a penny trade. Anyways, never had an issue.

If anything, I wish transfers from my bank (TD) were a little faster. I think my last one happened over night, but I remember it taking 4 days once - which sucks when you've been given a tip on a hot, err, um.. penny stock


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## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

thanks guys..i think my focus is going to be on a broker that gives me the best combination of fees, usability and research capability..i don't think i was giving enough credit to the services that a broker will provide.i feel that more than anything, i need a broker that has the research tools and tips available at my fingertips to make my stock trading decisions the easiest that they can get.


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## jamiechese (Jul 13, 2010)

Tenax, I really reccomend you check out Qtrade for starters, so far as I have found is that their research tools are quite exstensive, their prices are OK, so far I am excited to really get my hands on what will be available. They also have a mobile site so you can place trades and check your assets quickly. Also their stock quotes etc are really nice. I will post some screenshots once my account is fully opened.

The only downside to Qtrade is that since I live in Ontario I had to mail my application off, which is going to take a few weeks to get to their offices .

Stupid snail mail haha....


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## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

thanks jamie. i'll check it out extensively.


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## furgy (Apr 20, 2009)

Stay away from penny mining stocks , they are terribly manipulated , not saying you can't make money off them , just be careful , especially when beginning investing/trading.

I've had penny mining stocks that look good on paper , up 15 cents a share say , when you try to sell them , they never sell , so you change your sell order to a market sell , and it sells for less than you paid.

Stay away from anything listed solely on the pink sheets , they have very lax reporting rules and there are a lot of scams there , if a stock says "PINK" , don't touch it , unless it is listed on the NASDAQ , TSX or NYSE as well.

Some brokerages don't even like to sell pink sheet stocks.

JMHO


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

A good newsletter to look at is http://www.keystocks.com/
I like it because Ryan Irvine finds small companies that are growing revenue and earnings without a large debt load.


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## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

very interesting, dogcom. what level do you subscribe at and why?


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

I haven't actually subscribed to his newsletter, but I have met him at a conference in Vancouver and heard him on the radio and he makes a lot of sense. I did make money on symbol ORV which he recommended and I bought it at 70 cents and look at it now. I forgot the why? It is because he does the leg work and looks for those companies with the very strong fundamentals which I mentioned in my first reply.


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## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

hmm..ok..thanks..i think i would like a sheet that gives buy/sell recommends.


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

You have to remember that it takes a lot of work to examine small companies and recommend them, so not many people would want to do that for free. So if you find someone who will give it to you on a silver platter then go for it.


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## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

lol...don't get me wrong..i meant i like what i was seeing, didn't have an issue with it.. and really 700 bucks or so could end up being a small price to pay for what it provides.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

imho companies that are growing revenue & earnings without a large debt load are usually no longer penny stocks, they are tsx-listed & are thriving small or mid-caps.

more than 9 or 10 pennies of earnings is no longer a penny stock unless disaster has struck imo.

re newsletters: these are often tout manipulations, ie somebody has laid in a big inventory of abcd penny & is out hustling it. Plus everybody else has read the hustle before U see it, so it's yesterday's breakfast.


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## tenax (Oct 21, 2010)

is yesterdays breakfast a bad thing though if you get on it early enough? catching the ride as it's going up?


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

dog i don't agree with the keystocks hype.

these are not penny stocks at all, but established small caps, and keystocks' owner describes them as such.

some of the names i recognized because i've owned the stocks myself in the past. Mosaid, cvtech, migao, boyd. These are not unknown companies whose research ryan irvine has pioneered, as you are implying. Rather, these are thinly-traded specialty small caps that have been, and in some cases still are, the on-again-off-again playthings of several established mainstream toronto brokerage houses. Long before mister irvine, we heard of migao from gmp and others, for example. Long before mister irvine, we heard of cvtechnologies from goldman sachs, for example.

bref, these companies have been around the block already; and they never caught on bigtime; and it's not difficult to find out about them through numerous analysts. What keystocks appears to be doing is following up on and updating research notes that larger, better-resourced houses have promoted in the first instance. The schtick in keystock's case is that they are promoting themselves as original researchers & purveyors of the ideas, which they are not.

this is what these kinds of newsletters do. According to their advertising, they are god's gift to speculative novice investors, whose hands they will hold, for a price, while delivering slick-sounding ideas that are supposed to make their subscribers really, really rich.

i should add that i dug up a september video of mister irvine on BNN and frankly i'll never spend another minute listening to this wooden-faced, uninteresting young man. Nor would i spend one cent on his regurgitated research, when i can find better stuff myself faster and for free.


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

Your right humble pie it is not for me either and it does tell one how hard it is to find good penny stocks. He was the only one I knew you might get some ideas from. I suppose Jim Dines or Peter Grandich would also be helpful in this area but again you will get all the hype like you mentioned. 

I have also found my own penny stocks over the years without any help that are 10 baggers plus today and others that have done nothing. I found Jim Dines had the best remedy for this sort of thing. His remedy is you find small penny stocks in an area you think will be big in the future like Rare Earth minerals and then buy a basket of them that look promising and hope a couple take off.


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## davext (Apr 11, 2010)

If you are planning on doing a lot of trades, then go with the broker with the cheapest commission. That would be Questrade. 

If you need tools and research, you can always open an account with other brokerages, preferably ones that do not cost you anything monthly and do not require a minimum balance. I use both TD Waterhouse and Questrade, but I no longer trade with TDW. 

In addition, if you are investing in penny stocks, chances are you are not going to find enough information from brokerage sites. You're going to need to do a lot more research from various sources before you put your money into these kinds of stocks.


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