Experts Might Hold The Stock For 6 Minutes Or Up To 6 Months: If you are a day trader, you may be buying and selling stocks at an average of every five or 10 minutes. But, investors who are looking for long-term plays and do not want to trade much off momentum, might hold penny stocks for as long as six months.
While it might be tempting to hold onto penny stocks for the long term in the hope of getting large gains, that strategy can be risky. Instead, stock market author Michael Sincere recommends setting smaller goals like making 20 or 30 percent profits.
Penny stocks are viewed as a way to get rich because they tend to have high percentage returns. You can't deny it — the math on owning these stocks is psychologically attractive, particularly for inexperienced traders. For example, imagine that you have $1,000. If you decide to buy one stock with all $1,000.
Penny stocks are a class of low-price, high-risk public companies. They tempt highly speculative traders with the illusion of easy exponential growth, offering the chance to double, triple or quadruple their money. Don't be fooled—penny stocks are incredibly risky, with a very high potential for fraud and loss.
Finally, understand that almost no penny stocks make money over the long term. Most of the rare profits that penny stock traders generate arise from short-term moves that are based on emotion rather than the company's stock or business fundamentals.
Analysts says that penny stock companies don't often grow up to become big companies, but it does happen. For example, shares of Concur ran into some trouble during the “dotcom” bubble. Its shares tanked to $0.31 apiece in March 2001. However, the company recovered and the stock traded as high as $107 by 2013.
As with any stock, penny stocks can lose all of their value, and the share price can fall to zero. In terms of ongoing price minimums, if a penny stock's price falls below $1 for at least 30 consecutive days, it may be delisted.
Here's what they found:
The median penny stock returns -37 percent per year. The average penny stock returns -27 percent per year. Penny stock returns experience positive skew, but the mean is strongly negative.
Another reason there are few day trading millionaires is that very few succeed at day trading in the first place, and it takes a long time to master. Aside from the statistical improbability that all good traders can be millionaires, there are other more tangible reasons why even great day traders aren't millionaires.
Some professionals recommend that you devote no more than 10% of your individual stock holdings to penny stocks. It's also important to understand your risk tolerance. Generally speaking, the higher your risk tolerance, the more equipped you are to take on the risk that can come with investing in penny stocks.
The risk involved in a penny stock investment is huge. These shares can turn on the charts anytime. They never move parallel to major index or sectors. These scrips are highly volatile due to low trade volumes and investor interest.
When there are no buyers, you can't sell your shares—you'll be stuck with them until there is some buying interest from other investors. A buyer could pop in a few seconds, or it could take minutes, days, or even weeks in the case of very thinly traded stocks.
If you invest in stocks with a cash account, you will not owe money if a stock goes down in value. The value of your investment will decrease, but you will not owe money. If you buy stock using borrowed money, you will owe money no matter which way the stock price goes because you have to repay the loan.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), "Penny stocks may trade infrequently, which means that it may be difficult to sell penny stock shares once you own them. Because it may be difficult to find quotations for certain penny stocks, they may be impossible to accurately price."
These are high risk stocks with a low probability of returns. More often than not, they are just buyer's traps. You will be better off buying quality companies that are well researched instead of buying these penny stocks.
Many of today's large, well-known corporations once traded as penny stocks, and some still have had quite low stock prices. A few examples of ex-penny stocks are Ford Motor Company and General Motors, Sirius XM Radio, and Blackberry.
Tim Grittani (left) began day trading penny stocks with $1,500 three years ago. By following the lessons of penny stock guru Tim Sykes (right), Grittani has raked in over $1 million in profits.
Penny Stock Rule Amendments
Rule 15g-2 makes it unlawful for a broker/dealer to effect a transaction in a penny stock with or for a customer account unless the broker/dealer distributes a Risk Disclosure Document to the customer before effecting the customer's first transaction in a penny stock.