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Chapter Three: Common Investment Types – Penny Stocks 101

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Written by dzi11
Updated 1/6/2019 3 min read

Common Investment Types

In this chapter, I’m going to go over some of the most common investment types people use today. There are a lot of penny stocks that deal in a lot of different sectors, so you really have to understand the basics of Wall Street before you can understand penny stocks.

Got your pencils and pens out? Get ready to take some notes.

  • Stock

    Stocks

    Letā€™s start with an easy oneā€”stocks. They’re nothing more than pieces of paper entitling stockholders to a percentage of ownership in companies.

    You don’t own the companies. You’re not investing in the companies themselves. You have a little piece of paper and the value of your piece of paper can go up or down. That’s what you’ve gotā€”nothing more, nothing less.

  • Commodities

    Commodities

    Commodities are physical substances like oil, gold, grain, and orange juice (remember Trading Places?). The prices of commodities can inļ¬‚uence penny stocks, but they arenā€™t usually related. They’re deļ¬nitely a different animal altogether.

  • Derivatives

    Derivatives

    Derivatives include futures and options, and derive their value from other investments, like stocks. Although they sometimes influence penny stocks, they arenā€™t,again, directly related.

  • real-estate

    REAL ESTATE

    Investing in physical properties is another path people take to growth their wealth.
    Sometimes, real estate investing can influence penny stocks, such as when a penny stock
    company owns a lot of real estate, but this type of investing is another one that rarely
    influences penny stocks.

    And I have to tell you, although a lot of people like it, Iā€™m not a big fan of real estate investing.
    Want to know why? There are so many different variables to account for when
    you trade real estate! If you try to flip houses, youā€™ve got to time the markets perfectly,
    hope that your contractors know what theyā€™re doing and pray that you donā€™t find any big,
    unexpected, expensive repairs in the house you bought.

But even if you buy a property and hold it as a rental in the long-term, youā€™ve got to deal with tenants who want their light bulbs replaced at midnight. Youā€™ve got property taxes and maintenance costsā€”all of which eat into your proļ¬ts. Thereā€™s just so much risk of losing money!

Penny stock trading is so much more simple and elegant. Make a trade, make money, and get out, lose sometimes, but keep your losses smaller than your gains and you get richerā€”thatā€™s all there is to it.


* Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. See Terms of Service here

The available research on day trading suggests that most active traders lose money. Fees and overtrading are major contributors to these losses.

A 2000 study called ā€œTrading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investorsā€ evaluated 66,465 U.S. households that held stocks from 1991 to 1996. The households that traded most averaged an 11.4% annual return during a period where the overall market gained 17.9%. These lower returns were attributed to overconfidence.

A 2014 paper (revised 2019) titled ā€œLearning Fast or Slow?ā€ analyzed the complete transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange between 1992 and 2006. It looked at the ongoing performance of day traders in this sample, and found that 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading, and more than 90% of all day trading volume can be traced to investors who predictably lose money. Additionally, it tied the behavior of gamblers and drivers who get more speeding tickets to overtrading, and cited studies showing that legalized gambling has an inverse effect on trading volume.

A 2019 research study (revised 2020) called ā€œDay Trading for a Living?ā€ observed 19,646 Brazilian futures contract traders who started day trading from 2013 to 2015, and recorded two years of their trading activity. The study authors found that 97% of traders with more than 300 days actively trading lost money, and only 1.1% earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage ($16 USD per day). They hypothesized that the greater returns shown in previous studies did not differentiate between frequent day traders and those who traded rarely, and that more frequent trading activity decreases the chance of profitability.

These studies show the wide variance of the available data on day trading profitability. One thing that seems clear from the research is that most day traders lose money .

Millionaire Media 66 W Flagler St. Ste. 900 Miami, FL 33130 United States (888) 878-3621 This is for information purposes only as Millionaire Media LLC nor Timothy Sykes is registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser. No information herein is intended as securities brokerage, investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes cannot and does not assess, verify or guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions, should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment, and investigate and fully understand any and all risks before investing. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes in no way warrants the solvency, financial condition, or investment advisability of any of the securities mentioned in communications or websites. In addition, Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes accepts no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. This information is not intended to be used as the sole basis of any investment decision, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the investment needs of any particular investor. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns.

Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: ā€œDay Trading for a Living?ā€

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: ā€œhttps://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636ā€

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: ā€œhttps://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101ā€