Replies to post #14035 on General Stock Ideas

[bigworld]

gfp: The 3 people I know well who made it relatively big in stocks all did it working for a company early on and buying stock options along the way. One guy worked for Cisco in the 1980s. Made enough to retire while in his early 40s. He's still retired, now living in Venice, Florida. Another guy I know well was an electrical engineer who went to work for Bell Labs in Chicago right out of College. Bell Labs became Lucent. He bailed on Lucent before the dot-com crash because he though Carly Fiorini was a terrible CEO. He was right. He started his own company doing worldwide tracking logistics. He's planning to retire and has his company on the block. Once he sells that he'll have about $50 Million to live out the rest of his days. The 3rd person was a Pharmacist I went to school with. She moved to California and eventually did work for a new start up called Amgen. Got paid in stock options. Her and her husband currently live in a $5 Million dollar house in Santa Barbara with a view of the Pacific, 2 acres of fruit trees and views to die for. She turned me on to Amgen when it went public. I no longer own it. And It is still my biggest winner so far. I lost half those profits chasing other biotech dreams. Of them only ISIS ever made me any money. I currently only own one small biotech. CVM. And it has finally roared back to life recently. It still has great potential on the hopes for its lead product "Multikine", now in worldwide Phase 3 testing. You have to own some of those long shots once in a while. Not to go hog wild. But you need a little risk sometimes. Within reason.

[bar1080]

Ever read this little known SEC report on OTC success rates?

<<< from SEC.gov >>>

"This paper analyzes three aspects of over-the-counter (OTC) stocks: (1) the recent trends in the OTC stock market structure and size; (2) the documented properties of OTC stocks; and (3) the differences in returns based on investor and stock characteristics. Approximately 10,000 OTC stocks were quoted at the end of 2013 through 2015, generating a total trading volume of over $200 billion per year. Dollar volume has grown substantially since 2012 and is now concentrated in the segment of the OTC market with no requirements of registration or reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A synthesis of recent academic literature reveals troubling properties of OTC stocks. Academic studies find that OTC stocks tend to be highly illiquid; are frequent targets of alleged market manipulation; generate negative and volatile investment returns on average; and rarely grow into a large company or transition to listing on a stock exchange.

"Moreover, these properties tend to worsen when the OTC company has fewer disclosure-related eligibility requirements. I examine the relationship between OTC investor demographics and investment outcomes using a proprietary database of transaction-level OTC data with confidential investor information. Analysis of 1.8 million trades by over 200,000 individual investors confirms that the typical OTC investment return is severely negative. Investor outcomes worsen for OTC stocks that experience a promotional campaign or have weaker disclosure-related eligibility requirements. Demographic analysis reveals that older, retired, low-income, and less educated investors experience significantly poorer outcomes in OTC stock markets.

Given that retail investors are the predominant owners of OTC stocks, and the documented trend towards less transparent OTC companies, the results of this study have important implications for investor protection."

https://www.sec.gov/dera/staff-papers/white-papers/16dec16_white_outcomes-of-investing-in-otc-stocks.html