Sporty, as a retired CFO with some victories and lots of mistakes over my career, I was reflecting over the challenges you face in leading and administering your stock advisory endeavors. If you wouldn't mind, let me offer a few thoughts in no particular order...
1. I haven't researched the statistics, but my uneducated guess would be that let's say 80% of the companies in this penny stock universe will go belly-up. Accordingly, if you get even one-third of your picks to do really well, that is an accomplishment to be celebrated rather than criticized.
2. Your task is made even harder by what I think the phenomenon was at work in regard to IENG. If you don't try to catch "falling knives" and instead choose stocks that already have positive momentum, you run the risk of becoming the inadvertent pump to those who are ready to dump and celebrate their profits.
3. I do think that you are correct in having reached the conclusion that is fair for you to invest before you recommend, as this is a fair "price" to exact for recommending based upon the work involved in doing due diligence. The more challenging moral question is whether, at a time when you have soured on a recommendation, it is proper to make your own sale before you have so advised others.
4. There are lots of scoundrels involved in the penny stock arena. Frequently we won't know if the scoundrels are involved in a particular company and/or its stock. But sometimes in performing due diligence one can ascertain that the scoundrels have gotten there before you have. As a matter of practice, I think it is wise to steer clear of stocks regarding which you already know that the scoundrels have arrived. From the discussion board regarding IJJP, it seems that there may have been some unsavory characters in the mix early in the game.
5. There is one prevalent practice on I-hub which I think should be reined in somehow. It appears that I-hub "celebrates" stocks by the number of posts taking place on the discussion boards, and thus it is a temptation to try to boost a stock by posting multiple "hurray for the company" entries, few of which postings add to the base of knowledge potential investors will have. Perhaps having you and yours set an example here would be another example of how set the pace in morality around here.
Wishing you the best and with much respect!
