Penny Stock Marketplace

Although it has been a profitable ride, it is time to thin out the watchlist and finally give PRCC the boot.  Quazimoto feels that this could still “trade in the range” but price pattern and volume do not make it a true Quazi-pick anymore. 

HYPF continue to “hold the line” but it’s approaching the watch list expiration date.  This one will lull you to sleep as it slowly trickles down hill.  Unless interest in this stock increases in the next couple of days, it will go the way of PRCC.  Better trades are right around the corner so there is no sense in tying up your trading capital.

No additions to the list have been added today. Quazi is taking a three day weekend after that profitable run-up by SKNY last week.  Check the ticker for the current watchlist and remember…Quazi can pick em but you have to trade em.

Paying $7 or $10 for a trade is not much if you are a buy and hold type of person, or if you just do not trade that much.  What do you do if your trading methods call for several trades over a short period of time?  If you trade to scalp that 1 to 3% on a frequent basis, those commissions really start adding up.

Zecco Trading offers a deal that should a least be considered by active traders.  Currently, Zecco allows 10 free trades per month, every month.  After that, each trade is $4.50.  Not a bad deal although when I took the plunge and transferred my trading cash to Zecco, the deal was 40 trades per month.  The company, through customer survey, was told that most Zecco traders do not trade all that much so the change was made.  Whatever the reason, it is a little disappointing that I can only make five round trips each month.  Remember that a trade is one buy, or one sell. 

There are no fees to transfer funds into your account but there is a $15 fee to wire funds out, and a $20 fee to receive an overnight check.  Also, Zecco still uses paper statements sent via snail mail!  If Zecco want to cut costs, they should save a tree and opt for electronic statements.  I’m sure no one will mind; everyone else is doing it.

The Zecco site has everything you will need for trading, and checking your account, etc.  It seems a little jumbled, or convoluted, but for no commissions I am willing to adapt.

I have been with Zecco for almost two years and have never had a problem with any of the many trades I have made.  With the exception of super low volume penny stocks, execution times have been just as good as the pricier competitors.

So what if this does not fit your trading style?  If you find that you are making several trades per week, there is another option…Sogo Trade.  Although I do not have an account here, Sogo’s package is very tempting.  With a monthly subscription fee of $10.00, each trade is only $1.50.  With no monthly fee, each trade is $3.00.  Trading stocks below $1.00 does carry an additional fee of 1/2 of 1% of principle.

As for transfer fees, Sogo says there are no fees associated with a deposit or a withdrawal by check or electronic transfer by ACH (Automatic Clearing House).  There is a fee of $20 associated with wire transfers from your Sogo account to your external account.

Both Zecco and Sogo require a minimum balance of $2,500 for the $0 trading (Zecco) and the $1.50 trades (Sogo).

So there you have it.  If anyone wants to share their experiences with either discount broker, please reply.  If you happen to know of a better deal out there, please share that too.
 

It is always interesting to see what happens when a stock completely flat lines for a period of time and then suddenly shows signs of life.  Maybe a last gasp before the final plunge to zero or a break from bottom feeder status?

Interstate Bakeries Corp. wasn’t selling mortgages but you couldn’t tell from it’s fall from grace over the last year and a half.  IBCIQ is, at the very least, worth keeping an eye on in the short term and it is apparent that Quazimoto feels the same way since the little robot guyis here again. 

Float is the number of shares available for trading in the open market.  Authorized shares, outstanding shares, and restricted shares all play a part in the total “float”. Let’s look at the following example to get a better understanding of how float is determined.

Shareholders of company QUAZ authorize a total number of shares for the company.  For this example, 12 million shares are authorized.  Some of these shares are not issued and, instead, are retained in treasury.  These treasury shares, for our example, will be 3 million.

Authorized shares (12 million) - Treasury shares (3 million)

    = Outstanding shares (9 million)

Outstanding shares are what you normally see on most financial websites.  We now have 9 million outstanding shares for company QUAZ.  To find the float, or the actual number of shares available for trading, we must subtract the restricted shares from the outstanding shares.

Restricted shares are shares issued to insiders, employees, or other parties which have certain restrictions in terms of when and how they can be sold.  If the number of restricted shares for company QUAZ is 2 million, our float will be:

Outstanding shares (9 million) - Restricted shares (2 million)

     =Float (7 million)

I consider a low float stock to be any stock with a float of 7 million or less.  Penny stocks or any other stock for that matter, tend to be much more volatile when the float is at these levels.  It may be worthwhile to check float when deciding between several potential “breakout stocks”.  Of course, if you are looking for more stability, the higher float stock may be the better choice.  Huge momentum and quick gains are common when shares of these low floaters start trading hands.

 Quazimoto was busy at work weighing the probabilities of cash in on two interesting picks.  Merger talks have caused major interest in JPCI.  The retracement that followed caught Quazi’s eye and this low floater is, at least for now, scrolling in the Quazi ticker above along with RGRP.  RGRP may have found a bottom and bounced with volume recently. 

Updates to the watch list can happen at any time.  Time, price, lack of volume are all reasons that last weeks pick may no longer be a part of this special group of microcaps.  Even if there is no post, Quazimoto never sleeps and takes control of the blog. Just look at the Quazi-ticker in the header for the most recent updates. The ticker is the window to his current penny stock favorites.  If you see a blank square where the ticker should be, go here for the free Java download.

Quazimoto made a quick switch today by dumping ESMT and replacing it with ERHE. A couple of steady days in today’s price range might set up a quick price gain.

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”

                                                 -Louis Pasteur

Take a look at the chart of HSYN.  This chart is the model of the Quazimoto stock picking screen.  You will notice that the first initial move from approximately two cents up to over ten cent that occurred at the beginning of the March was followed by a price retracement down to seven cents.  Increase in price coupled with increasing volume and a decrease in price coupled with lower volume is a true indication of a healthy upward move. 

The arrows indicate the buy points.  This stock just happened to have an additional 50% gain today just for an added bonus.  It would have been nice to pick this stock at the initial two cent level but this would require holding for an extended period of time unless the trader was given some sort of information indicating the ‘jump start’ off the bottom. 

Quazimoto currently has a few stocks on the watchlist.  ESMT, HYPF, SKNY, WTER.  All of these have an expiration date to prevent holding for too long as some of these will return to lower price levels.  Better to take the small loss and wait for the next HSYN.