two important things to look for when buying penny stocks

Post on 14-Apr-2017

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Buying penny stocks isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world… at least not if you want to be successful. Sure, you can go out and buy the latest penny

stocks getting pumped like crazy. But, that’s bound to end badly.

You could also buy penny stocks based on their narratives. This one is a gold

producer and gold’s going up! That one is a rare earth miner, and we need those

minerals for cell phones!

Sometimes buying the hot industry/product can work – but it too will usually result in losing money. So then, what can we do to improve our

chances of finding a good penny stock company?

As many of you probably remember, gold spiked to all-time highs in 2011-2012. There was a major gold buying frenzy

among institutional and retail investors alike. Even central banks were loading

up on bullion.

Once the financial crisis stabilized and the US economy began to recover, gold

prices fell to pre-crisis levels. And, they’ve been hovering around $1,200

ever since. Here’s the thing…

Back during gold’s peak, there were countless penny stock companies

claiming to be the next big gold miner. It seemed like every new company out

there owned property which may contain a mother lode.

Funny thing is, many of these companies were doing nothing remotely related to

gold mining before the price spike. Some of these companies were “social media experts” and others were selling

non-stick cookware.

Basically, there was no reason to believe these companies could mine gold, even if

their properties contained the precious metal. And, if you investing in any of

these “gold companies” chances are you lost big.

Like most any other type of investing, you need to do your research before buying penny stocks. Fundamental

analysis is equally important on small companies as it is on large ones.

You just need to shift your expectations to take into account the size and age of

the company. For instance, a newer, smaller firm isn’t likely to be very

profitable – if at all – early on.

That’s especially true for a development stage company. By the same token, a

small firm shouldn’t have a big debt load either. Some debt is normal, but a ton of debt early on is certainly a red flag for a

penny stock company.

First off, it’s always a good idea to find a company with cash. A company that has

raised/saved a fair amount of cash is usually well managed, and not a fly-by-

night type firm.

Typically, I like to see a reasonable amount of cash versus no debt, or a lot

of cash versus moderate debt. The other thing to look for is a positive operating

margin.

Operating margin is revenue minus cost of goods sold, minus expenses. Unlike profit margin, operating margin includes expenses such as admin and marketing.

On the other hand, for a small business, paying attention to net profit is not that

important. Taxes, interest, etc. just don’t mean that much at this stage (unless

we’re talking about a huge debt load, as I mentioned earlier).

Meanwhile, operating margin does a very good job of showing if the core business is producing good results. And, that’s by far the most important thing to consider

for a penny stock company.

By paying attention to cash and operating margin, you can go a long way

towards finding penny stocks worth buying. It can also help you avoid the pitfalls of having the really bad penny

stocks end up in your portfolio.

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