Penny Stock Chaser

I don't get to listen to Rush Limbaugh much, I listen to him or C-span as I drive between jobs. (though I've been tending more towards C-span lately -- I swear, a Republican could catch fire in the Senate and you'd never hear about it on the network news, but C-span is a window into what is really going on)

Anyway, I caught Limbaugh today and heard a commercial that gave me pause. It was for PennyStockChaser.com. And no, no link. They seem to be down today, according to IsItJustMe?, so I couldn't read their "disclaimer" page. But I'd urge anyone who thinks they might be interested in Penny Stock "advisers" to check out two things: first, their disclaimer page, and then this article.

But if you find a penny stock you really like; one that the internet assures you will make you rich, here's a rule that will never steer you wrong:
1.) Flip a quarter
2.) If it comes up heads, don't buy the stock.
3.) If it comes up tails, don't buy the stock.
4.) If it lands on its edge, and stays there, and slowly starts rotating clockwise by itself, and George Washington winks at you, then invest that quarter and nothing more.


***Update: found this:

.....PennyStockChaser appears to engage in similar practices. Already, during just seven months of operation, the young website has collected almost 200 million free trading shares in microcap companies that it was paid to tout. Although PennyStockChaser fails to disclose whether it has already sold those shares – shunning a practice adopted by more transparent firms – it could have scored millions by selling some of those pumped-up stocks before they crashed and left ordinary investors with big losses.

In early August, for example, the website highlighted Atlantic Wind & Solar (AWSL) – a company with no revenue, few employees and an “office” that apparently belongs to UPS – in one of its featured profiles. Shares of AWSL, which fetched 84 cents on the day of that report, rocketed toward $5 over the next few months before reversing course and losing serious ground. PennyStockChaser received 140,000 free shares of AWSL – worth $675,000 at their peak – for its favorable coverage.

Timothy Sykes, a former hedge fund manager with a keen eye for penny-stock fraud, suspected blatant hype and shorted 3,000 shares of AWSL ahead of its recent plunge.

“I still expect the stock to fall 50% to 90% from its pumped-up highs, in accordance with other PennyStockChaser pump and dumps,” Sykes wrote in a blog on his official website.