but nonetheless, penny stocks that go from $.01 to $0.50 in a hurry are not unheard of -
They're quite rare. Not nearly as common as penny stocks that go to triple zeros from wherever.
Let's consider the Real World for a moment. In the Real World, a YEARLY gain of 20%, annualized, would be considered incredibly good. People thought Bernie Madoff was a genius because he claimed to average about 17% a year. (Of course he wasn't capable of making that much; he wasn't trading at all.)