Well,

I've just purchased the CD online and I await for the arrival of the CD.

Tomorrow, I will be making calls to ScotTrade and ETrade enquiring their services and open an account with one of them after my decision. Then start exercising my options and start with the $1 - $10 market range.

I don't know about the Penny Stocks. Seems too risky. The companies will just fold anytime and take the money and leave. I've looked at the Russell Industries (RSDS) from the earlier post here and there's not enough leverage or enough material to convince me to invest in them. I will focus on the $1 ~ $10 range and slowly build up there using Orange's and other's theory about the 5% to 20% method.

I would personally focus on the Coal sector as coal is huge demand in China.

You have to consider that a common belief is that a stock that trades at or below 5.00 a share is considered a penny stock, and quite a few big board stocks started out as pennies using this as a starting point.

Not sure limiting yourself to coal due to the consumption of it by China is such a good play either for that matter. Sectors rotate from being hot to being cold. Like for the first quarter of this year drug and biotech stock were really in vogue and good money was to be had investing in those with drugs or patents in the pipeline or in the final stages of clinical trials awaiting FDA approval.

With the start of the Quarter reporting season now getting in to gear it is starting to look like the business sector may be comming into play. One place to get an idea of how things are moving you may want to check out this http://www2.barchart.com/sigstr.asp.

Anyway welcome aboard kingsleymok and good luck with your trading, just remember a homerun is not hit at every at bat but single and doubles due make for a winning score.

Disq

__________________
The only bad question on investing in the stock market is the one that is not asked.

kingsleymok, i ran a coal play a few months back (JRCC). as i recal, i kinda broke even on it. maybe it'll work better for you. helpful to understand the basic types of coal and invest in the best (i'm sure you're on top of this, of course). one type is high-sulfur (bad), the other is low-sulfur (good). this mainly has to do with energy density, but increasingly it's also related to pollution density.

__________________
___________________________________________
[SIZE=2"No more riddles."[/size]
___________________________________________
get the cd. it's how money gets made.

Disq and Orange,

Thanks for your insight. I will play with caution.

You know, ever since I read Business Week's Top 50 Performers, the stocks I've played in the simulation are all showing growth since near the end of February 2007. I've purchased them in the simulation near the end of March 2007 to see what it's like. I've checked it on a daily basis and now that is April 20, 2007, the growth is amazing. You can take a look at the charts yourself on Yahoo Finance.

EOG
VLO
SUN
NUE
X
GILD
ORCL

And the ones I chose out of personal interest (not based on Business Weeks Top 50 Performers), they are showing growth as well:

IVN
IVN.TO
RTP
ASG.V

All of these combined are making my porfolio in the simulation in the greens. The only one that was showing a loss is Apple. 11 gains and 1 loss.

I have to admit the stocks you listed are definitely not penny stocks infact most look like well established firms. This just goes to prove that money can be had by picking stocks that are rotating into vogue with the investing public no matter what the cost per share. The big problem I see with picking stock listed in Business week is that they are in the top 50 performers because the move they have already made put them on the list. The object of the expirement is to attempt to make as much money as you can in a one year period with the ultimate goal of making 1 million dollars in a year. I believe this could be done but would have to be done compounding your investement dollars and picking the correct stock before the general public see the big move and riding that move for a quick return on your investment as the general public jump on board a soaring stock out of greed. The question then is when to get out of the stock the expirement is trying to obtain a 10% gain on the stock quickly then get out of it before it retraces. I find this not so easy to accomplish so I set my goal as 3% gain. Now if you go back and look at the trades I have made you will see that some of them have attained the 10% gains and others are only in the 2 to 5% range. Be that as it may so far in the 3 months I have been in the expirement I have increased my investment dollars by approximately 200 %.
So as you can see taking your time and selecting the correct stocks can be profitable to the average investor. The point in picking the penny stock in the beginning is that you are trying to get the most bang for the buck on the limited investment dollars you have in your account. It should be noted that as the account grows in size the use of penny stocks would become more difficult because the size of your portfolio would then cause the stock to move because of the investment you would be making. This could hurt you in the long run because you may not get anyone else to invest in a sub 10 cent stock if you bought say 500,000 shares of a stock that has and average daily volume of say only a few hundred thousand shares. At this point I think stock selection would then have to be based on dollars invested in the stock instead of stricly volume of shares traded. So this would look like 5,000,000 dollars invested as and average daily dollar amount so that your 1% or less of this dollar amount would not attract to much attention. So that the effort you put into analyzing your stock pick has a good chance to suceeding.

__________________
The only bad question on investing in the stock market is the one that is not asked.

Please Post This Statement and These Rules with Updates! Thanks.
**********************************************
THE RULES- YES YOU CAN STILL JOIN
1. If you are just joining, your start date is the current date of your post, and you start at ZERO gain.
2. When posting your update, you MUST include in the post, or in separate post right after it, the stock symbol, entry/exit dates, and entry/exit prices, so ppl can check it. Otherwise your update will be deleted. Would be nice to hear the war story too.
3. You MUST make and report a ROUNDTRIP trade AT LEAST every two weeks. Otherwise, you aren't really in the Experiment and will be dropped and have to start over. Serious illness is an exception, but you must post this fact BEFORE the two weeks runs out. If you're posting elsewhere on the board then you're assumed to be well enough to do an Experiment trade.
**********************************************
trader: orange start date: 1/3/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $799...up 60% (2% loss from last report, incl $10 rt comm)
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trader: Klipper22 start date: 12/27/06...start balance: $700 , current balance: $2308...up 229.7 %.
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trader: scmfinance start date: 12/13/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $2982.96...up 198.30%
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trader: TNTrader start date: 1/4/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $883.01...up 76.6%
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trader: Aufan 1983 start date: 1/3/07...start balance: $1716.40 , current balance: $2057.95...up 19.9%.
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trader: taterbug23 start date: 1/11/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $1234...up 23.4%.
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trader: Disqplay start date: 1/12/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance $2141.00...up 210% --- this trade approximately -.95 %
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trader: Guthrie start date: 1/18/07...Start balance: $1395, current balance: $1558.32...up 10.4%
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trader: johnfields20 start date: 1/19/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $542.00...up 8.40%
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trader: grizzums start date: 1/30/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $1000...up 00.0%
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trader: Soliman, start date 01/01/07 ... start balance $1000, current balance: $1,254.60 ... up 25.46%
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trader: CactusPowered, start date 02/26/07 ... start balance $689, current balance: $687.60... down .2%, up 2.3% last trade
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time for my mandatory 2-week report. been bagging this one a long time.
AGLV 3/2/07 buy 34000 @ .0025
AGLV 4/12/07 sell 34000 @ .0025
only half of that was experiment cash tho. but experiment takes the full hit for commish. since it was only $89.95 total buy, i got real stubborn when it crashed and decided to wait 'em out based on past performance and charts. and it paid off in terms of breakeven instead of loss. exit was on TA which called the top and that was correct.

i am up to my eyeballs in another play (pr play). DOWNSIDE: somewhat red right now. UPSIDE: i now understand better how pr plays work. i almost got out of it last week on a quant exit, then almost out on a TA exit. both were strong hidey-hide jump-and-run signals but i knew from T&S that mm's in their trickery had lapped up a lotta shares at high price so i've held on and price has much improved since almost hitting my 10% stoploss. stay tuned...

__________________
___________________________________________
[SIZE=2"No more riddles."[/size]
___________________________________________
get the cd. it's how money gets made.

Please Post This Statement and These Rules with Updates! Thanks.
**********************************************
THE RULES- YES YOU CAN STILL JOIN
1. If you are just joining, your start date is the current date of your post, and you start at ZERO gain.
2. When posting your update, you MUST include in the post, or in separate post right after it, the stock symbol, entry/exit dates, and entry/exit prices, so ppl can check it. Otherwise your update will be deleted. Would be nice to hear the war story too.
3. You MUST make and report a ROUNDTRIP trade AT LEAST every two weeks. Otherwise, you aren't really in the Experiment and will be dropped and have to start over. Serious illness is an exception, but you must post this fact BEFORE the two weeks runs out. If you're posting elsewhere on the board then you're assumed to be well enough to do an Experiment trade.
**********************************************
trader: orange start date: 1/3/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $799...up 60% (2% loss from last report, incl $10 rt comm)
================================================== ====================
trader: Klipper22 start date: 12/27/06...start balance: $700 , current balance: $2308...up 229.7 %.
================================================== ====================
trader: scmfinance start date: 12/13/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $2982.96...up 198.30%
================================================== ====================
trader: TNTrader start date: 1/4/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $883.01...up 76.6%
================================================== ====================
trader: Aufan 1983 start date: 1/3/07...start balance: $1716.40 , current balance: $2057.95...up 19.9%.
================================================== ====================
trader: taterbug23 start date: 1/11/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $1234...up 23.4%.
================================================== ====================
trader: Disqplay start date: 1/12/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance $2141.00...up 210% --- this trade approximately -.95 %
================================================== ====================
trader: Guthrie start date: 1/18/07...Start balance: $1395, current balance: $1558.32...up 10.4%
================================================== ====================
trader: johnfields20 start date: 1/19/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $542.00...up 8.40%
================================================== ====================
trader: grizzums start date: 1/30/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $1000...up 00.0%
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trader: Soliman, start date 01/01/07 ... start balance $1000, current balance: $1,254.60 ... up 25.46%
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trader: CactusPowered, start date 02/26/07 ... start balance $689, current balance: $689.60... up 0.1%, up .7% last trade
================================================== ====================

bought 12 FRPT @ 20.36
Sold 12 FRPT @ 22.17
Gain: 0.7% or $2...sigh. At least it was a gain, and my experiment acct is finally in the green again!!!

These break-even/small gain plays are killing me. It's time to make a good play and get back in the game again. This rough patch has been tough, but i've learned from my mistakes (bhub comes to mind). Btw, Orange, I feel you on the break even plays. It sucks to have to do it, but at having to post every trade (good or bad) really makes you feel accountable. Then, when you make that green, it feels even better

__________________

Disqplay,

So the goal of the $500 experiment "is to attempt to make as much money as you can in a one year period with the ultimate goal of making 1 million dollars in a year" where it is focused towards the penny stock. Being a newcomer and about to invest with real money, uncertainties from the penny stock really puts a scare in my pockets.

I will definitely have to look up to all of you on this $500 experiment and find out which penny stocks are top 5 picks.

Is this $500 experiment only limited to just one stock for $500? Or can it be diversified to other stocks to a total of $500?

Kingsleymok,

you can definately play in as many stocks as you want. The problem with diversification at a $500 level is that if your stock goes up 5% ($25 profit if you've invested $500), you're going to be charged $19.98 commission for a round trip, leaving you with a profit of $5.02. Now think if you've got 2 positions for $250 each. You'll still only make $25 profit but spend $39.96 in commissions for a net loss of $14.96. Basically what I'm saying is that you really can't afford to do multiple plays for your first trades with $500, unless they go up like 30%+, hehe.

As far as top5 picks are concerned, they change daily. You can't go into this experiment looking for the top stocks. Pennies are a very volitile set of stocks. One may go up 40% one day, but then plummet 56% the next. Many people have different strategies to make money. Some buy after a stock plummets 56% and wait for the price to go up. Others play on fundamentals (company has a product, profit, etc). Others go for momo (momentum) plays, where the stock has gone up 30% and they believe it will continue to go up more. A few people do scans for stocks daily to come up with a watchlist, which they will then post in the forums. You have to remember that in most cases, they will expire after they get played.

If you want to make money at the penny stocks, you need to learn charting skills so instead of asking which picks are going to go up, you can identify them yourself. And remember, at the end of the day, remember to take your profit-before somebody else does.

I hope this helps, I kind of rambled on for a while.

EDIT
******
as a newcomer about to invest in penny stocks, don't make the mistake I did. trade with a paper an pencil first to see how you do. Then, if you make fake money, you'll feel confident to try it for real. If you lose, you can learn something while not risking actual money. Many people will agree that this is a very viable method to learn how to buy stocks.

__________________

kingsleymok--- i can't add much to the good comments from Cactus. but you can play any kind of securities you want- even bluchippers and options and forex-- whatever. and you can start with more than $500 if you dare, tho not recommended if you're just starting to trade.

__________________
___________________________________________
[SIZE=2"No more riddles."[/size]
___________________________________________
get the cd. it's how money gets made.

go Cactus go Cactus!! yeah, i've been mostly playing ultra-safe on these myself, which is a good thing. but is frustrating sometimes. i just didn't want the experiment to look bad- ppl need to see how to survive until they can afford the big risks. at least i have a low commish, tho. also been piddling back and forth between strategies, which is NOT a good thing, long-term, but is useful to zone in to what works best and learn how to use each to best advantage, i think. sending you a pm....

__________________
___________________________________________
[SIZE=2"No more riddles."[/size]
___________________________________________
get the cd. it's how money gets made.

I spent the weekend looking for a good play today and decided that the play would be EGHT. Prior to the open placed a buy for 1200 shares at 1.30 which by the way I looked at the charts should be the low for the day. According to the charts in Scottrade it reach 1.30 sometimes after lunch and stayed there for appoximately 45 minutes thought sure I would get filled seeing I placed the order around 8 am. It did not get filled and at 3:50 when I finally said to hell with it EGHT was up at 1.38 just coudn't seem to catch a break today.

kingsleymok if you noticed by going back over the thread most of my plays are over a dollar a share. I do this because I just can't seem to get it right below a dollar. True you can deversify but like Cactus says you will be eaten alive by commish until you have enough cash to trade comfortably being able to split your money and still make a profit after commish.

You may want to take into consideration about buying the CD greencats is selling here on the thread it does seem to work for quite a few here in the group. I tried it but seem to get the correct play a little on the late side but still improving on my chart skills and should be able to get it down before to long.

I also use my own scans written for a program called Amibroker and they seem to work quite well for me but some of the people I showed scans to of the stocks I picked could not understand why I made the choice. Basically it was by looking a previous results of the scans over the last 3 years of data. The way I look at it if the scan average is 3 winners and 4 losers and the last 4 times the scan was wrong and lost money I may buy the stock because of the run of bad picks by the scan. I do backtest the results for the scans I run on the market. This has proved to work quite well for me. I also have a total of 11 different scans that I run and a stock has to show up on more than one scan to be considered. typically have around 100 stock on on the different scans this is pair down my the number of scans that have repetitive stock. Min has to be on three different scans looking for different things. This would imply that at least the stock is strong on multiple fronts. Then the key to selecting the one stock is the backtest. Anyway you are not limited to one stock or pennies but you have to start somewhere the best way to look at it is a 10% gain in capital is the same weither the stock is .002 cents a share or 100.00 a share. So the best advice the you could take is play a stock that you have confidence in and feel comfortable playing.

__________________
The only bad question on investing in the stock market is the one that is not asked.

Please Post This Statement and These Rules with Updates! Thanks.
**********************************************
THE RULES- YES YOU CAN STILL JOIN
1. If you are just joining, your start date is the current date of your post, and you start at ZERO gain.
2. When posting your update, you MUST include in the post, or in separate post right after it, the stock symbol, entry/exit dates, and entry/exit prices, so ppl can check it. Otherwise your update will be deleted. Would be nice to hear the war story too.
3. You MUST make and report a ROUNDTRIP trade AT LEAST every two weeks. Otherwise, you aren't really in the Experiment and will be dropped and have to start over. Serious illness is an exception, but you must post this fact BEFORE the two weeks runs out. If you're posting elsewhere on the board then you're assumed to be well enough to do an Experiment trade.
**********************************************
trader: orange start date: 1/3/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $749...up 50% (6% loss from last report, incl $10 rt comm)
================================================== ====================
trader: Klipper22 start date: 12/27/06...start balance: $700 , current balance: $2308...up 229.7 %.
================================================== ====================
trader: scmfinance start date: 12/13/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $2982.96...up 198.30%
================================================== ====================
trader: TNTrader start date: 1/4/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $883.01...up 76.6%
================================================== ====================
trader: Aufan 1983 start date: 1/3/07...start balance: $1716.40 , current balance: $2057.95...up 19.9%.
================================================== ====================
trader: taterbug23 start date: 1/11/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $1234...up 23.4%.
================================================== ====================
trader: Disqplay start date: 1/12/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance $2141.00...up 210% --- this trade approximately -.95 %
================================================== ====================
trader: Guthrie start date: 1/18/07...Start balance: $1395, current balance: $1558.32...up 10.4%
================================================== ====================
trader: johnfields20 start date: 1/19/07...start balance: $500 , current balance: $542.00...up 8.40%
================================================== ====================
trader: grizzums start date: 1/30/07...start balance: $1000 , current balance: $1000...up 00.0%
================================================== ====================
trader: Soliman, start date 01/01/07 ... start balance $1000, current balance: $1,254.60 ... up 25.46%
================================================== ====================
trader: CactusPowered, start date 02/26/07 ... start balance $689, current balance: $689.60... up 0.1%, up .7% last trade
================================================== ====================
4/19/07 buy 65s COLY @ $11.00
4/24/07 sell 65s COLY @ $10.30
6% trade loss... this was the pending pr trade i mentioned in my last update. these can be very good on the day the pr comes out. i look for premarket news and watch L2 premarket prices, then buy and sell premarket on the action. ow ow Mommy! Mommy! is i got my hand caught in the cookie jar on this one like the greedy little bugger that i am--- saw the ask rock to $11 but didn't wait to see if the much lower bid would climb too (my excuse was that often by the time the bid catches up the train has left the station LOL). so at open they crashed the whole business down to $9.90 and i almost got out... but the greedy mm's had bought so many shares back much higher i figured they'd have to bring the price back up soon and they did. today was a puzzler, might be 3-inside-up or might be series of spinners and not sure which so better a small loss than a big one (i was in very deep with other funds too). also this is a slow mover unless news comes out. live and learn.
EDIT: i use http://www.prnewswire.com/ premarket... click "Today's News" then click every few minutes to refresh. also has a nice search function, like for "FDA" or whatever...

__________________
___________________________________________
[SIZE=2"No more riddles."[/size]
___________________________________________
get the cd. it's how money gets made.

wnet to check forex after my last post... i'd been running a two-day eur/usd play (now that'll put hair on your chest LOL) and whattaya know it had closed for 8% gain to my acct. so naturally i instantly got greedy, jumped back in TWICE and ripped off another 2% lol with quant visual.
so now my constant rethink abt all this-- i may move experiment funds to fx when i hit $1k here in experiment. my new quant visual tool is working well and making me lazier than ever!! disqplay if you're reading this i hope you give it a try if you're not still having 'way too much fun with the other quant stuff and greencat's cd. Cactus now has the tool- drove him nuts with it last night. we're still figuring out directionality but that's not a real problem if you just look at the prior trend and set a good stoploss so you usually come up green. i will probably give a small free class on one of the other visual tools i have soon... but right now i'm just laughing too hard to do it

__________________
___________________________________________
[SIZE=2"No more riddles."[/size]
___________________________________________
get the cd. it's how money gets made.