A penny for your thoughts, no wait, how about a penny for your stocks?

If you own any issues that used to be worth dollars and are now worth pennies, then you'll have to pay me to listen to your thoughts.  Actually, I don't want to hear.  It brings back hurtful memories of stock that I once owned.  I believed in management, but when they told me business was getting better, I should have been suspicious because I noticed that they were dumping their own stocks.  I bought more stock because it was so cheap and I was averaging my price down.  It was a total loss.  Oh well, live and learn.  That was one penny with its face down.

Now flip the coin over.  There was another stock I remember that started out as a "blind pool" at ten cents a share. "Blind pool" means that the management doesn't know exactly what they are going to do with the money they raise.  Imagine that; Speculators putting money into a business and they don't even know what the business does.  This time though, management was smart and they used the money to buy into a retail store with a new marketing concept.  That one store grew into ten, merged with another chain, got bought out by a bigger company, and today those penny shares are worth thousands.

Here's the lesson: penny stocks are ultra high risk and either boon of bust.  Take a chance if you dare, but know that the odds are stacked against you.  Its either "a penny saved is a penny earned," or "no guts, no glory".  A penny stockbroker once told me how he advised his clients.  "If you want to know what to do, then flip a coin, heads I win, and tails you lose".  Those who didn't understand were his best customers.