I came over here to show Plato this post, and saw yours, don't fret, no one long in the OTCBB has made money by holding. I will continue to hold a few interesting OTCBB's that I have on the bottom, and flip those, but am moving onto trading the bigger boards exclusively until things improve. The MM's are just intent on maintaining profitiability in the OTCBB's by naked shorting, and even when they are cornered with a HUGE naked short, they just make a deal with the company. There are enough naz plays in the pennies to make it interesting anyway.
To:LANCE B who wrote (98165)
From: Tom Allinder Thursday, Dec 20, 2001 7:44 PM
View Replies (1) / Respond to of 98316
Well, I am done trading for the year... I believe Lance is doing the same.
Has been a very frustrating year on the OTCBB/Pinks. This is the first time I can recall that a sustained NASDAQ rally (rallied since late Sept) did not result in a broad rally on the OTCBB. The OTCBBNN puts out an email once or twice a day with OTCBB stats. Decliners/Advancers and those that were unchanged. Cannot remember the last time I saw advancers outnumber decliners. My screen at the end of every day says the same... more red than green.
And now, it seems that positive news no matter how good is greeted with selling and shorting (mainly selling... at any price). OTCBB companies are forced to continue to issue stock just to remain afloat. Many actually decent companies have been ruined. Many companies only need some financing to get an exciting new product off the ground. But now, there is no money... stock is worthless. And no one has enough money to put into a speculative product.
I also believe that a lot of unaccounted for stock has come into the market. But, no question that very few people are holding any stock any more... better to sell at .01 or .005 than hold down to 0.
Additionally, traditional OTCBB investors and traders do not have any where near as much cash as they used to have. Many of those people I knew in 98, 99 and 2000 are long gone now. They have real jobs. Unless you are a very good trader and have a lot of capital, you cannot earn a living being an OTCBB trader any more. Many OTCBB traders have moved onto the NASDAQ and have had some success.
Will the OTCBB ever return? It will, but it will take a long time and a sustained economic recovery to bring enough money back to the OTCBB to move stocks again.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are OTCBB stocks that move... there are some that move every day. But the moves only last a few minutes to a few hours... there is an occasional multi-day runner but they are few and far between. Many people made nice money on COVD last few weeks. But, COVD is much closer to being a NASDAQ stock (they were delisted from NAZ not so long ago) than anything else currently on the OTCBB. And to make money on these stocks you have to be able to get in and out in a hurry. Almost every morning, many of the OTCBB stocks on my screen are green and look like they want to run... but, they are almost always a trap. The MMs trap a few people in at the open, take it up a few pennies, then vacate the bid and stick people with the stock at the higher levels... when these people that bought the traps lose hope or get pissed and sell, the MMs are more than happy to buy the stock back a few pennies lower... IF they buy it back at all.
I certainly hope the new year will bring a recovery... We are going on 2 years of a hard bear market on the OTCBB than began mid-March of 2000.
Tom
imho, Jerome
