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January 5, 2016: Another year goes by and it's time to take another look at why penny stock players are fighting a losing battle. We do that by taking our second annual look at which promoters consistently deceived those traders who are still willing to believe that there is such a thing as easy money.
The drop offs
We imagine that we did not make many friends among the promoters we exposed last year by providing an accounting of the losses that their followers incurred. Pretty much all of these con artists saw a marked decrease in their business and many of them have disappeared altogether or just a mere shell of themselves.
Although 2014's first runner up, Research Driven Investor, did not make this year's list of the worst, it is worth noting that several of its newsletters were spun off into Lions Gate Ventures. This would go a long way towards explaining the 40% decrease in promotions conducted by RDI.
This was not the case for 2014's second runner up, GS Media, which publishes newsletter Hole In One Stocks, among others. GSM touted a mere 13 tickers during 2015, down from the 93 promotions during 2014 which generated $2.1 million in same day theoretical losses. As these guys haven't been heard from since April, we imagine that this is all she wrote for this promotion group.
2014's fourth runner up, Flip Ventures, whose newsletters included Today's Penny Stocks, merged with tiny promotion group One22 Media, for 2015. The combination did nothing to grow One22 and the old Flip newsletters are hardly heard from anymore. One22 pushed 48 tickers in 2015 and generated only $3.3 million in trading volume, while Flip Ventures managed 114 promotions in 2014 and generated $27.5 million in trading on its own.
Odd Marketing, the publisher of flagship newsletter Penny Stock Crew among others, actually saw an increase in the number of tickers it hawked during 2015 to 109, which was slightly above 2014's 104. However, Odd's followship, however, evaporated significantly, as evidenced by the 55% decrease in generated dollar trading volume to $14.6 million from $32.3 million, and the decrease in the number of trades in promoted tickers to 14,630 from 32,255.
Freedom Ventures, the publisher of OTC Rock Star, similarly saw a slight increase in the number of promoted tickers to 126 from 123 in 2014 in spite of the fact that the publisher pared the dozen emailed newsletters down to two. Generated dollar trading volume decreased in 2014 to $9.7 million from $22.3 million while the number of trades in its promoted stocks fell to 19,305 from 32,289 in 2014.
Blanca Solutions, publisher of several newsletters including Wall Street Sccop, saw its promotion activity tail off to 108 hawked tickers, down from 133 in 2014. Most of the decreased was noted during the 4th quarter of the year when Blanca pushed only 13 tickers.
Action Media, which last year was known as Sherwood Ventures and Blue Wave Group before that, and is the publisher of several newsletters including Beacon Equity, saw its promotion business decimated in 2015. The group ran only 58 pump campaigns, down from 103 a year ago, managing to generate a relatively paltry $4.7 million in trading compared to $38.2 million a year ago. Much of their promotion activity was concentrated on long time Pump & Dump schemes and Action Media favorites PSID, OOIL, and AXXE.
And now, the worst promoters of 2015
Yes, we know that Stock Tips and the Elite Penny Stock Group, which includes Finest Penny Stocks, steal much more money than those promoters that made the list here, but we are looking at the promoters who push some sort of crap on most trading days. They call themselves "The Day Trade Newsletters".
Publications: 007StockChat.com, OTCfire.com, PennyStockSpy.com, StockHideOut.com, StockRoach.com
Theoretical Loss for Year: $1,078,561
The summation of the year's daily theoretical gains/losses.
Number of Promotions: 128
The number of days on which a ticker was promoted. If two tickers were promoted on the same day, then that day counts as two promotions.
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 61.5%
The average ratio of losing trades from each promotion. In this case, an average of 58.2% of all trades lost money.
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 82.8%
A high trade established early in the day, is a likely indication of competition among sellers to divest themselves of stock. In this case, 51% of all promotions had their high trade for the day established by 10:00am.
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: +26%
The average gain/loss between the day's opening and closing trades from each promotion.
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -24.4%
The average discount from the day's high trade to the closing trade.
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 69.5%
The ratio of promotions which saw more losing trades than winning trades. In this case, 58.8% of promotions saw more losers than winners.
Comment: Promoter had a slight decrease in the number of promotions over 2014, but a 63% decrease in trading dollar volume generated ($49.6 million to $18.6 million). During the first quarter of 2015, promoter relied on two emailed newsletters over the five it previously used to disseminate.
Average intra-day change in price was significantly higher due to promoter's ability to get its followers to purchase shares early in the trading day before the inevitable dump.
They Said It: In a December 21 email which touted shares of AEXE as a triple digit mover, Stock Chat bragged about a 100% increase over two days in shares of FCGD. The problem is that Stock Chat had promoted the stock a day earlier, when shares closed flat on the day and whereby, Stock Chat's promotion was already over when the shares doubled from $.0002 to $.0004. What's worse is that on December 21, shares were valued at $.0001, a 50% decrease from the Stock Chat promotion price, a fact that the tout neglected to bring up. In the meantime, four thousand bucks worth of AEXE traded on December 21st and the share price was up .1%, not exactly a triple digit move.
Average intra-day change in price was significantly higher due to promoter's ability to get its followers to purchase shares early in the trading day before the inevitable dump.
They Said It: In a December 21 email which touted shares of AEXE as a triple digit mover, Stock Chat bragged about a 100% increase over two days in shares of FCGD. The problem is that Stock Chat had promoted the stock a day earlier, when shares closed flat on the day and whereby, Stock Chat's promotion was already over when the shares doubled from $.0002 to $.0004. What's worse is that on December 21, shares were valued at $.0001, a 50% decrease from the Stock Chat promotion price, a fact that the tout neglected to bring up. In the meantime, four thousand bucks worth of AEXE traded on December 21st and the share price was up .1%, not exactly a triple digit move.
Publications: 1-2-3StockAlerts.com, FortuneStockAlerts.com, PennyStockCircle.com, StockMarketQuote.us, StockMister.com
Theoretical Loss for Year: $1,162,808
The summation of the year's daily theoretical gains/losses.
Number of Promotions: 107
The number of days on which a ticker was promoted. If two tickers were promoted on the same day, then that day counts as two promotions.
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 57.7%
The average ratio of losing trades from each promotion. In this case, an average of 58.2% of all trades lost money.
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 72.9%
A high trade established early in the day, is a likely indication of competition among sellers to divest themselves of stock. In this case, 51% of all promotions had their high trade for the day established by 10:00am.
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: +28%
The average gain/loss between the day's opening and closing trades from each promotion.
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -28.9%
The average discount from the day's high trade to the closing trade.
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 66.4%
The ratio of promotions which saw more losing trades than winning trades. In this case, 58.8% of promotions saw more losers than winners.
Comment: How the mighty have fallen. 2014's worst promoter participated in 107 promotions during 2015, a 42% decrease from last year. During the last quarter of the year, we saw only 15 tickers being hawked by the fallen star. Trading dollar volume generated by MCC dropped 62%, from $37.4 million to $14.3 million. Even with the drastic decrease in promotion activity, Stock Mister and company still managed to create well over $1 million in theoretical same day losses for its followers in 2015.
They Said It: December 17 emails touted shares of DRMC, referring to the ticker as an "All Momentum Monster". On the previous trading day, shares lost 45% of their opening bell value and 25% of their value from the previous day's close. That's one heck of a momentum to be promoting. This was the third time Micro-Cap had pumped the valueless shares of DRMC in 2015. At the time of the December 17 emails, shares had dropped 96% of their value from the year's first promotion of the stock.
They Said It: December 17 emails touted shares of DRMC, referring to the ticker as an "All Momentum Monster". On the previous trading day, shares lost 45% of their opening bell value and 25% of their value from the previous day's close. That's one heck of a momentum to be promoting. This was the third time Micro-Cap had pumped the valueless shares of DRMC in 2015. At the time of the December 17 emails, shares had dropped 96% of their value from the year's first promotion of the stock.
#5 - MJ Capital
Publications: InsiderStockProvider.com, MomentumOTC.com, PennyStockLocks.com, ResearchOTC.com, StockRockAndRoll.com
Theoretical Loss for Year: $1,370,120
Number of Promotions: 130
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 58.7%
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 83.1%
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: -1.5%
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -22.0%
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 63.1%
Comment: Participated in four separated THNS Pump & Dump campaigns over a two month period May to July and during which the share price dropped 95.8%. Share price has since been wiped out.
They Said It: On May 28, MJ Capital jumped into an ongoing promotion campaign on TPHX, issuing emails that claimed that "a major uptrend was forming". At that time, the ticker was on its 46th day of the Pump & Dump and the stock was already down 75% since the launch of the campaign. Shares closed at $.15 that day and at $.006 at the end of the year. Most would not classify this as an "uptrend".
They Said It: On May 28, MJ Capital jumped into an ongoing promotion campaign on TPHX, issuing emails that claimed that "a major uptrend was forming". At that time, the ticker was on its 46th day of the Pump & Dump and the stock was already down 75% since the launch of the campaign. Shares closed at $.15 that day and at $.006 at the end of the year. Most would not classify this as an "uptrend".
Publications: EpicStockPicks.com, TheWolfOfPennyStocks.com, UnitedPenniesOfAmerica.com
Theoretical Loss for Year: $2,391,222
Number of Promotions: 77
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 65.8%
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 77.9%
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: 7.1%
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -26.4%
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 75.3%
Comment: Also participated in the THNS Pump & Dump, touting the stock in four separate campaigns over a six month period. By the time MFG pumped the stock for the fourth time, shares had already decreased 97%.
They Said It: On July 29, as MFG was pumping THNS for the fourth time, the promoter referred to the stock as "a beast", claiming that the stock had delivered 80% gains and that it was "one of the top profiles of the year". It was at this time that shares were down 97% from the initial MFG promotion in late January.
They Said It: On July 29, as MFG was pumping THNS for the fourth time, the promoter referred to the stock as "a beast", claiming that the stock had delivered 80% gains and that it was "one of the top profiles of the year". It was at this time that shares were down 97% from the initial MFG promotion in late January.
#3 - Stellar Media Group
Publications: ActivePennyStock.com, BeatPennyStocks.com, DamnGoodPennyPicks.com, PennyPicks.net, PennyStockNewsletters.net, PennyStockWatchman.com, PrePumpStocks.com
Theoretical Loss for Year: $3,123,406
Number of Promotions: 206
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 66.9%
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 75.2%
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: -9.4%
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -23.0%
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 73.8%
Comment: Was one of the biggest advocates of the AXXE Pump & Dump, having participated in eight campaigns over two years, half of them in 2015. Oversaw decrease in share price from 30.4 cents to 4.4 cents over the two years and an almost 100% wipe out to date. Was also a major culprit in the THNS Pump & Dump over the last two years having participated in nine campaigns; five in 2015. Share price has since been wiped out.
They Said It: In emails for yesterday's pump on GFOX, Stellar showed how stupid and gullible they believe their followers to be by making the statement, "GFOX Moves To Dominate The Hamburger Restaurant Sector", We think that McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's may have something to say about that.
They Said It: In emails for yesterday's pump on GFOX, Stellar showed how stupid and gullible they believe their followers to be by making the statement, "GFOX Moves To Dominate The Hamburger Restaurant Sector", We think that McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's may have something to say about that.
Publications: BestDamnPennyStocks.com, BuyPennyStocks.com, DailyStockReporter.com, PennyStockHub.com, PennyStockObserver.com, PennyStockPress.com, SearchingWallStreet.com, SuperStockPlays.com, TheNextBigTrade.com, TradingWallSt.com
Theoretical Loss for Year: $2,800,247
Number of Promotions: 114
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 71.2%
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 87.7%
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: -15.8%
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -32.2%
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 81.6%
Comment: Yes, Stellar Media created 11% more losses, but EGM Firm was not far behind and they achieved their total with just slightly more than half the number of promotions. The staggering losses are probably the reason EGM doesn't get as many chances to screw the public as Stellar. We are astounded by the 87.7% of promotions which are downhill by 10:00 am.
Participated in five Pump & Dump campaigns on THNS from late March to early July, overseeing a 99.9% drop in the share price over those 13 weeks. Even though the shares became drastically cheaper with each pump, Stellar found it appropriate to stiff their followers with even more recommendations to buy. By the time they promoted the stock for the 5th time shares had already lost 89.6% of their value. Perhaps apologies would have been more appropriate than recommendations.
They said it: In an October 6th follow up email to their pump of DOLV, EGM Firm bragged about a 200% increase in the price of the stock just one hour after the open. However, the stock gapped almost 100% at the opening trade so unless the trader knew that the ticker would be pumped before the previous close, nobody buying the stock on the pump benefited from this gap up. Furthermore, shares closed down 77% from the high trade as traders collectively lost almost $125,000. Almost 90% of the day's volume was executed after the high trade, indicating a strong dump of insider shares. Not surprisingly, EGM Firm found no reason to brag about this.
Publications: EquityTradingAlert.com, OtcTipReporter.com, PennyStockScholar.com, PennyTrader.co
Theoretical Loss for Year: $4,743,698.20
Number of Promotions: 72
Average Daily Percentage of Losing Trades: 63.0%
Percentage of Daily High Trade Occurring By 10:00am: 81.9%
Average Intra-Day Change in Share Price: -4.4%
Average Intra-Day Close From Day's High Trade: -19.8%
Days With More Losing Trades Than Winners: 66.7%
Comment: Spun off from last year's runner up, Research Driven Investor, few promoters could do so much damage in a single day as these guys. Losses are underscored by those taking part in the August 13 double whammy promotions of OHGI (a $2.2 million hit) and IMUC ($593K lost). Five days later, $950K was lost on a promotion of NURO. Several other Lions Gate promotions also showed enough 5 and 6 digit losses that we wonder why anybody would ever participate in one of their Pump & Dump schemes.
They said it: In a December 2nd email promoting shares of ASCK for the second day in a row, Lions Gate newsletter pronounced that the stock had "rallied hard all day" on the first day of the promotion. In actuality, shares had reached their high for the day with the very first trade and then proceeded to fall 35% throughout the rest of the day, creating trading losses of $53K for the day. Shares fell further on the second day of the Lions Gate promotion, closing 54% below the Pump & Dump launch price.