How Can I Tell Whether a "Hot Penny Stock" is Actually Worth Buying?

North American micro-cap investors have access tonumbers, smart penny stock investors focus most of
thousands of penny stock opportunities, eachtheir attention on the non-financial information. In
competing for your attention - and dollars. But ofother words, they look at the company's strategy
these, only a small fraction will ever deliver theand business model to determine whether or not a
lucrative short-term returns that make investing instock has the potential for high short-term growth.
penny stocks so attractive. It's critical that you doSome of the things you should consider include:
solid research and careful due-diligence before riskingCompany Offering: Closely examine the products or
your hard earned capital.services offered by the company and compare them
The financial media and the major Wall Streetwith other key competitors. Look for products or
analysts rarely cover micro-cap companies. As aservices that serve a large niche market while
result, investors may need to do more originaldifferentiating from the competition through lower
research and get information from other sources.pricing, better technology, a unique approach, etc.
These might include the target company itself, orCustomers: Who is the company's target market?
firms such as OTCMarketBulls which specialize inLook for a large base of potential customers with
analyzing penny stock opportunities.the resources and interest in purchasing the products
The information you use to assess the investmentor services being offered.
value of a micro-cap company will often be quiteDistribution Channels: Look for companies with a clear,
different than that you would use to examine aconcrete strategy for delivering their product or
large, blue-chip corporation. For stocks listed on theservice to their target market.
major exchanges, an investor will typically useMarketing Strategy: Pay close attention to a
financial and stock price information to determinecompany's marketing and public relations activities.
whether a stock is worth buying. You might look atAre they effectively reaching their target audience?
52 week stock price highs and lows, profits, debtsAlso look at the company's investor relations and
and other markers.stock promotion efforts as these can affect share
However, relying on financial and stock priceprices.
information alone to assess micro-cap investmentsManagement Team: Get to know the company's
can be very misleading. The best penny stockleadership. Look for relevant experience, past
investments are small, growing companies which likelysuccess and an enthusiastic vision for short and
haven't yet seen a lot of trading activity. With heavylong-term growth.
investment in start-up, research and development orOTCMarketBulls uses these and other measures to
marketing, these companies are likely showing smallselect stocks to watch for our newsletter (click here
or negative earnings and may have highto subscribe - Hot Penny Stocks). While no research
debt-to-equity ratios. And for small, rapidly growingcan fully eliminate your risk, proper due diligence can
companies, financial statements get out of date verygreatly increase your chances of picking a winner for
quickly.your portfolio.
While you should never completely ignore the