Some of the best advice I ever got was from a teacher who asked his mentor "when is the best time to invest"? His mentor replied "when you have money to invest". I don't know your situation, but if you're asking dad for $10k to take a flier on a penny stock, you seem to be new at this and possibly young. Go out and see what it takes to pay your own bills, kill something and drag it home, and save an extra $10k on top of all that to take an incredibly unsure gamble like this. Like others have said, you better be willing to lose it all if you're going to do something like that. Good Luck to you in any case.