Scammers, Spammers, and Slammers

[PaperProphet]

Spam stock statistic.

If anyone is interested in aggregate returns, several years ago I recorded the stocks which were spammed to me by e-mail for a few week period of time. There were around twenty of them. Tracking them showed that on average they lost about half of their value after around a month and a half after they were spammed.

I also looked at the trading before they were spammed but there wasn't any clear direction there. I expected a slight bias upwards before the stocks were spammed but the sample didn't show that. The prices were fairly random up until that point. My guess is that either most spam is unsuccessful at making the spammers any money or that the spam takes place before someone holding the stock decides they want out. At any rate, the odds seem heavily stacked against anyone who actually buys a stock which was spammed to them.

A couple of years after that, I was going to record and analyze another round with a bigger sample but never got around to analyzing it. I'll paste them here in case anyone wants to try--although generally tickers and names change often at this level so it might be hard after this long. But just in case:

Date: ..... Ticker .....Stated price..."Target"...Actual bid...Actual ask
06/08/06 HYWI.PK .....0.70....4.50....0.45....0.59
06/12/06 FNGP.BO .....-....-....1.65....1.75
07/17/06 SYNI.OB .....0.49....3.00....0.55....0.56
08/09/06 SMKG.PK .....0.13....-....0.16....0.165
08/15/06 CWTD.OB .....0.89....2.00 to 2.30....1.08....1.10
08/18/06 CDPN.PK .....0.40....1.5....0.61....0.62
08/22/06 WWNG.PK .....0.086....-....0.085....0.095
08/23/06 DPER .....0.0048....0.02....0.005....0.0055
08/23/06 NHLG .....0.023....-....0.022....0.024
08/25/06 GCME .....1.72....4.10....1.76....1.82
08/25/06 GGTS .....<.10....0.75....0.11....0.12
08/25/06 PPTL .....0.0138....0.05....0.017....0.0175
08/27/06 LITL .....0.62....3.00....0.68....0.685
08/27/06 AETR .....0.80....-....0.88....0.94
08/28/06 EQTD .....0.015....0.10....0.013....0.016
08/28/06 WBRS.PK .....0.051....0.20....0.055....0.057
08/29/06 ALVN .....0.55....7.00....0.71....0.8
09/01/06 AMSN .....0.003....0.03....0.0032....0.0035
09/01/06 TMXO .....0.38....2.50....0.47....0.48
09/05/06 PGCN .....0.24....1.50 - 2.00....0.27....0.28
09/05/06 NHLG .....0.024....-....0.022....0.024
09/06/06 PSUD .....1.32....4.50....1.07....1.10
09/08/06 KGBC .....0.77....3.00....0.78....0.80
09/10/06 LYJN .....0.17....2.25....20.5....21
09/10/06 HLUN .....0.16....1.00....0.215....0.23
09/11/06 TFZP .....0.45....-....0.45....0.51
09/10/06 FNLH .....0.26....-....0.27....0.28
09/12/06 EQTD .....0.015....0.06....0.13....0.15
09/15/06 TXHE .....0.094....0.40....0.082....0.095
09/15/06 LVCC .....1.25....4.00 to 6.00....1.25....1.3
09/19/06 AUNI .....1.19....3.50....0.665....1.05
09/19/06 CYHD .....0.01....-....0.007....0.0075
09/27/06 KGLJ .....7.00....14.00....7.00....7.08
09/28/06 SPSY .....0.10....0.55....0.07....0.1
09/30/06 BGUE .....0.50....1.50....0.70....0.80
10/02/06 AUNI .....1.04....2.40 - 4.00....1.4....1.5
10/05/06 GDKI .....2.15....15.00....2.87....2.88
10/07/06 SBNS .....0.75....15.00....1.11....1.13
10/10/06 FTRM .....0.70....1.50....0.60....0.70
10/11/06 GLXI .....0.25....-....0.27....0.35
10/11/06 QEGY .....3.30....25.00....3.32....3.35
10/12/06 CDGC .....0.07....-....0.09....0.1
10/13/06 ARSS .....4.10....8.00....2.90....3.05
10/14/06 ARSS .....4.10....8.00....2.90....3.05
10/15/06 ARSS .....4.10....8.00....2.90....3.05
10/18/06 ARSS .....4.10....8.00....2.90....3.05
10/19/06 XTPT .....0.0055....0.04....0.01....0.011
10/19/06 TJSS .....0.225....1.50....0.31....0.32
10/20/06 CWTD .....0.45....2.50....0.43....0.44
10/22/06 RREF .....0.80....2.70....1.60....1.70
11/02/2006 TERX .....0.20....1.20....0.245....0.25
11/04/06 WEXE .....1.02....-....1.05....1.06