I don't believe anyone is shorting penny stocks. The OTC is not even a regulated market. I started to mess with stocks in 2008-2010 when the construction industry took a downturn and I found myself with some extra time on my hands and a little extra money to use.
I still hold almost everything I bought back then. I'm out of Netflix and McDonald's now but I still hold 18 more in my account. I won't get into it but I'm still doing fine. The Baby Berks and the Apple split were added after the original cherry pick and I forward all my dividends back into the stocks in that account for now.
I bought GW back then too. Had to actually purchase certs from them as a foreign investor. Back then I was new and didn't realize what the OTC was so I just relied on my gut and what I could grasp from the interwebz. As a sidetone, I would never suggest buying foreign stock certs to any average investor. The fees killed me when I dumped them for the US IPO but I bought them all back for about the same price average on the open market.
A web search brought me to this place and I became a member around 2010. I was a nut, had a couple of good hits too, but it was apparent to me that making money off the backs of easily deceived people wasn't a game I wanted to play but I bought a couple of depressed properties with my gains and was working on those too.
I spent a year or so bashing some of the same stocks that I played and I definitely wasn't short, I could just see when the sheep would gather, and I went in to tell them how I was fleecing them along with the insiders. I fooled around with options for awhile but...
I decided to go back to my day job after that and that's how our lock shop was born. We do around a million a year but we pay our bills on time, including taxes and treat our union employees well along with trying to stay up to date on the ever changing sales force so...
we come out around even for da' biz, and I go home with a good paycheck along with my guys....
It beats the fuck out of slamming my head on a keyboard reading Clay's charts everyday, but you never know, I could be back. Trading the herd is fairly easy money, but I'd much rather give something to society rather than take it while I am able.
sometimes, it's just what we do.