11. CLAIMS OF SHORT POSITIONS Sometimes you'll hear that a particular penny stock will rise because of a tremendous short position in the stock and an upcoming short squeeze. We'll say it again. Large short positions in penny stocks don't occur because it is almost impossible for anybody outside of a market maker to take a significant short position in a penny stock. There has yet to be the penny stock that had a rise in price because of a short squeeze. Very few brokerage firms will allow you to short penny stocks and those that will encounter so many restrictions that it is impossible for a significant short position to exist.
Unscrupulous Things A Tout Will Do To Gain Your Confidence
6. BLAME IT ON THE SHORTS If a stock promotion hasn't been successful then it must be the fault of the naysayers and the shorts. It couldn't possibly be that nobody was buying the story or that insiders were selling into the promotion. Comments in follow-up emails like, "We were battling with the shorts", are a sure sign that a pump and dump program was on. The battle was not with the shorts but with the insiders who were filling all the bids they could. After all, if the so-called shorts were willing to sell stock at lower prices, then why wouldn't they have hit bids prior to the promotion?
Signs That You Are A Victim Of A Pump & Dump
1. INCREASED VOLUME AND A TEMPORARY UPSIDE A quietly trading stock has a sudden increase in trading volume following a promotion, which continues even after the increase in share price has been eradicated and the stock falls into negative territory. This is a sign that the insiders had offers at the asking price all the way up and once profit taking started, the insiders continued to sell, this time by hitting the bids..
2. INCREASED VOLUME AND STRAIGHT DOWN A quietly trading stock has a sudden increase in trading volume following a promotion, but in this case the price went straight down. How could this be if there were no sellers when the stock was quiet? This is a sign that the insiders are dumping, providing stock to bidders no matter what the price. Insiders are probably competing with each other to get rid of stock.
3. INCREASED VOLUME BUT STOCK MOVING SIDEWAYS A quietly trading stock suddenly shows trading volume but the share price is stuck in a tight range. This is a sign that the insiders are not whacking bids but have plenty of stock for sale at the offer. This is the smartest tactic when dumping stock because in this way, unsuspicious investors like the fact that there seems to be support for the stock and yet it hasn't run away giving them the perception that they are not too late to join the party. Always and inevitably, the share price will fall out of bed once the bids stop coming in and the insiders have no choice but to lower their offer. At that point, other investors will also attempt to cut their losses and join the selling.
Sure Signs That You Should Not Be Playing The Stock Market
1. You Believe That The Share Price of Your Penny Stock Is Down Because of Shorting No, no, no! Impossible! We'll say it again. It is impossible for a significant short position to exist in any penny stock. Anybody who tells you otherwise is conning you. Any tout who tells you that his "pick" went down because of shorting is a liar. There is only one reason for a penny stock to go down in price. And that is because sellers (mostly insiders) are flooding the market with stock.
2. You Believe That There Is Such A Thing As A "Paid Basher" The fact of the matter is that most penny stocks are scams. The regulators have made it far too easy for con artists to infiltrate the stock market with ridiculous schemes, most of which are designed to dump worthless stock onto an unsuspecting public. In order for these cons to get you to buy their stock, their company has to be "talked up" and that is through paid promoters who have developed email or snail mail lists by advertising their own feigned success in the penny markets. Some of these promoters are so good at conning their audience, they even convince subscribers to pay for their membership. Most, but not all, will specify some sort of compensation for their promotion, as required by law.
When a penny stock goes down, touts and company insiders will often invoke the idea of shorting as the cause. As discussed previously, shorting penny stocks is so prohibitive, that it never causes the demise of the price of a penny stock. Still, people will try and convince you that anybody speaking negatively about the prospects of a penny stock is a "paid basher" out to aid the shorts. As there is no upside to paying somebody to speak negatively about a penny stock, paid bashers are a fairy tale. Same goes for these fantasy so-called "short and distort" schemes. If you believe that the share price of a penny stock can go down because of a paid basher, GET OUT OF THE MARKET NOW!