At this end of the market a lot of what the trading "is" tends to be a function of your timing... sometimes, if you buy when other holders are selling and you get market matched orders, they get filled just fine... buy at other times and you don't get filled or else you may be bidding it up to get filled.
Sometimes the MM sits on it and fills orders for a gazillion shares without it even making a dent in the price... other times you buy or sell a hundred shares and your driving it up or down...
A lot has to do with the fact that at this end of the market, companies often sell shares to fund operations. That is the purpose of the market, of course, and I don't have a problem with it, done properly... but, when it is run amok and used for the purpose of funding things other than key business needs... "dilution" gets a bad name in paper mills because there isn't any connection between share sales and real value being added to the company by raising new capital.
Knowing all that, in some companies you can expect to see shares being sold to fund operations in some more or less regular patterns... and you might time your planned funding of those you trust to use the money well... to ensure they get it.
It is hard for some people to understand how shareholders at this end of the market can consider themselves as and act like owners... choosing to invest in order to support a company that way. There ARE larger risks in the need to do your due diligence and find "real" companies... but the rest isn't much different than the nature of the risks taken by venture capitalists in other venues... higher risk... longer time lines for returns... but also disproportionate ability to make some big gains.
I think you need to have the same VC type approach to portfolio management... diversifying risks across industries, opportunities, and management teams... but you often don't have the team they do helping with the in depth DD... and it is often hard to get useful DD work done. Sometimes you do get a real team of investors to congeal on the boards, which is a pleasure when it works and enables cooperation that gets some useful work done with shared responsibilities.
I do think ABSY is one of those that I'd consider a "pink chip"... as I tend to expect that "real" companies on the pinks will be those with larger business partners invested either in the business or in its success. In those situations you might expect the known name business partners to cover some DD requirements for you...
ABSY is partnered with Staples as a customer working to help ABSY in validating the product, and with Fujitsu providing systems support... ??? So, I know they aren't a wholly fictional "business opportunity" or a total scam... still doesn't mean you know that they will succeed and make the business work... a risk which is priced into all small companies, and into all pink sheets stocks... along with some of the "scam stock" risk potential that comes with the pink sheets venue. I expect applying the "partner" screen actually delivers a surplus of investor benefit in risk/reward... as the shares have fully priced in pink sheets risks that the partners tend to minimize in fact. Still need to apply a portfolio approach, and still need to apply market skills in buying and selling well...
It is harder than you might think at first to find shares that meet the partner/customer risk reduction requirement... the pinks I hold using that concept are ABSY, LNGT, NXCO and CLYW... with ABSY being the only one that is as fully obscure as it seems to be...
That is also a double edged issue... the lack of recognition makes it cheaper and often a value to buy... but obscurity doesn't help when you want to sell it for a greater value than you paid. It does mean you know it isn't being valued based on "pump"... but, there is something to be said for having the story be known well enough by others when you want to sell shares, and as a company succeeds, the most frustrating thing in the world is to have known and growing values that others just don't recognize...
I've found more than a couple of obscure pennies with known $1 per share enterprise value or BVs that sell for $0.05... and it isn't worth buying them without an ability to get anyone else to recognize it is worth $1... ???
There is greater upside potential built into the "solid" companies on the pinks for that reason, too... if their success enables business growth that eventually elevates their profile, and moves them up to the next level of reporting and respectability on the pinks, or to the OTC or NASDAQ... but, most have none of that potential. ABSY still has to prove its success in the market before I'm going to worry about it... NXCO, LNGT and CLYW all have real potential to move up market.
I'd rather have more picks that meet my pink screens... but, without them, I'd invest in shares in other markets...
Of the four... ABSY is down 15% from my initial entry... and I'll happily buy a bit more from time to time to average down a bit. In NXCO I called a buy at the bottom at $0.028 and it is now up to $0.06 with the business doing very well... still a buy based on charts and potential. CLYW seems to be "working" on putting in a bottom but I haven't called it yet... and it may still back down to around $0.045... or it may not. LNGT I called at $0.031, and it has traded up to $0.05 and back to or below $0.03 a couple times since then... currently at $0.045 and waiting on news... and waiting... and waiting... which should be familiar to ABSY and other pink shares investors.
All four have potential to become rewarding investments... and all four have higher than NASDAQ risks of NOT making it... but, if/when they DO make it... they will have vastly greater than NASDAQ potential rewards.
CLYW has been over $0.50 from low penny range and likely will do that again... maybe soon... and could become a very profitable company. NXCO could also become a really profitable operation, and traded as high as $0.66 a few years ago based on the "potential" they are actually beginning to realize right now. LNGT has partnerships formed that have protected markets for great products... waiting on clsoing above market financing, but sales will likely not be happening until 2009. ABSY fits the mold... nearing the end of product development and on the verge of signing sales... the "$65 million dollar sales pipeline" issue.
Also the case in each stock that they tend to hit long term market lows JUST as they are actually getting to the point of accomplishing what they've been "working on" for years...
If one of four succeeds... no worries about the others. If two hit... I'm a very happy camper all the way around. Three? It could happen. All four... seems unlikely... but, if only one reaches its full potential: :<)
I also put a little "spare change" into the occasional super high risk wild ass pinkie speculation... not investment... although I do the same level of DD or more on them, which is a useful DD challenge... use a "proven asset value" screen as a qualifier, which doesn't do much to reduce business risks or ensure the assets will ever end up as value for shareholders. The assets were real and the risk was realized on KGLJ... which is an ongoing story. PWTC and TRNP are similar asset only stories, without any going concern pretensions... they'll possibly work out if they ever do anything (PWTC) or simply avoid dilution with asset based revenues (TRNP). IGPG is a similar asset value vs debenture dilution risk story.
For now, thats about it for my more adventurous pinkie land interests... hope you find it interesting if not useful.
AI
