On Friday I had the opportunity to present an investment strategy I developed over the past few years to a major asset manager interested in learning the intricacies. Among the questions he asked, one that comes up often, is how do I go about finding particular stocks that I think might be of value.

The answer of course is not so simple, because like any other type of discovery they come about in a variety of ways. Sometimes it begins with a story, as it did in December 2008 when I included EZCorp (EZPW) among my 2009 stock picks (and 2010 and 2011). In this case I was pondering what was going to be safe, and perhaps even in growing demand during a year of financial turmoil and high unemployment. The answer was pawn shops and cash-advance stores.

Continue reading Chasing Value: How to Find Value Stocks -- Part 1

Chasing Value: How to Find Value Stocks -- Part 1 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: Newcastle Shares Flying off the Shelf

Chasing Value: Newcastle Shares Flying off the Shelf originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Penny stock investing doesn't have to be a crap shoot on long-shot stocks. Done well, penny stocks can be a great way to diversify your portfolio and really amp up your investment profits. While penny stock investing can be risky, it can also be very rewarding.

I recommend finding bargain penny stocks traded on major exchanges, for no less than $1 a share and with a proven track record. These penny stock investments should show significant earnings growth and strong buying pressure behind shares, increasing the likelihood that these stocks will be on the way up in the very near future.

Continue reading Three Tech Penny Stocks to Buy Now

Three Tech Penny Stocks to Buy Now originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Five Popular Penny Stocks to Sell Now

Five Popular Penny Stocks to Sell Now originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Penny stock investing doesn't have to involve super risky stocks that can erase your retirement money. Penny stock recommendations also can encapsulate low-priced stocks that are more stable, trading at bargain prices and low valuations. These bargain investments trade for between $1 and $3 -- very cheap compared to traditional equities. Though they are not trading for a few cents like some penny stock recommendations, these stocks are worth the extra share price because they have added stability.

Continue reading Three Penny Stocks to Buy Now

Three Penny Stocks to Buy Now originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Three Penny Stocks to Buy Now

Three Penny Stocks to Buy Now originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Make a Quick 35-40% in Tower Semiconductor

Make a Quick 35-40% in Tower Semiconductor originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) shares opened lower Monday morning, pushing down near the $1 mark. But investors who have been watching this stock for a while know that it can give up a lot more before it shows signs of slowing down. SIRI is up a stunning 70% year to date, even while the broader market is in the red.

In fact, I think there's a tremendous buying opportunity in Sirius stock right now since shares have drawn back about 20% from a their high in the beginning of May.

Continue reading Get Serious About Buying Sirius XM

Get Serious About Buying Sirius XM originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 May 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Blockbuster Seeks Reverse Stock Split

Blockbuster Seeks Reverse Stock Split originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Doughnut dean Krispy Kreme (KKD) baked up its third-quarter earnings, revealing a net loss of four cents per share. The quarterly earnings reflect provisions for the settlement of litigation and related legal costs, which totaled three cents per share. A year ago, Krispy Kreme lost nine cents per share in the third quarter.

Krispy Kreme's president and CEO noted, "Our results continued to improve year-over-year in the third quarter ... Our improved results are evidence of progress in implementing our strategic initiatives, which have us on a path toward building a growing, profitable business that is sustainable for the long term."

Continue reading Krispy Kreme reports better-than-expected quarterly results

Krispy Kreme reports better-than-expected quarterly results originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

USA Today's Matt Krantz reports that shares of some companies bankrupted by the financial crisis have posted huge gains in recent months: "Lehman and WaMu, for instance, were booted from stock exchanges and filed for bankruptcy protection. Yet on the lightly regulated Pink Sheets markets, this year their stocks are up 500% and 1,050%, respectively."

The problem is that shares of companies like Lehman and WaMu are completely worthless with no prospect for recovery for shareholders. Ownership of the company's assets is no longer held by the common stock -- and with creditors taking losses, there is no chance that shareholders will receive a nickel.

Continue reading Memo to SEC: Put the zombie stocks out of their misery

Memo to SEC: Put the zombie stocks out of their misery originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Interested in buying some General Motors stock?

Interested in buying some General Motors stock? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Sirius XM Radio gets an upgrade from S&P -- surely you can't be serious

Sirius XM Radio gets an upgrade from S&P -- surely you can't be serious originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My core investment strategy of trading strong penny stocks (which earned me 197% last year) has clearly benefited from the overall market's strength of the past few days. While I'm looking at these following five names, I'm not rushing into them just yet. Each has a different story to tell:

Ferro Corp. (NYSE: FOE), a struggling industrial materials maker whose stock price has plummeted in the past six months from the $20s to $1, basically doubled to $2 after the company amended its financing agreement -- meaning its lenders gave it some breathing room.

Continue reading Five stocks under $5 to consider

Five stocks under $5 to consider originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading NYSE suspends $1 rule

NYSE suspends $1 rule originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week, I've been working on a list of penny stocks to buy. Given that any recovery is likely to be led by the small-cap space, I'm looking closely at the smallest of the small to drive my portfolio higher.

Not for the faint of heart, these so-called penny stocks can generate some really fat returns. I'm not talking about just doubling your money here. Stories abound of returns of 300% or much more on stocks that started out trading for less than $5 per share.

One of the stocks on my list is in the poker space, and to give you a bit of a preview, I want to visit one other player in the space that was worthy of consideration, but did not make the final list.

CryptoLogic (NASDAQ: CRYP) is a leading provider of software for the Internet gaming space for non-U.S. players. It is that last piece about non-U.S. players that has me quite excited about the stock.

The company has benefited from the explosion of online poker playing, but stagnated due to tough enforcement of rules and regulations against U.S. players. It is illegal to gamble online, and that is a huge problem for companies like CRYP.

My take on this stock is that regulations will change for a few reasons. At the top of the list is a new administration that claims to bring a non-lobby-based form of governing to Washington.

That means the Vegas lobby is out of luck when it comes to online gaming. Every other modern country allows it, why not ours?

Another big plus is the taxable revenue that would come from legalizing online gaming. Given the economy and massive debt loads, one would think this would make sense.

I think the space makes for a reasonable speculation, and CRYP looks like a strong play in my opinion.

With shares at $2 and change, off a 52-week high of $21.97, there is plenty of fuel here.

Of course, there is risk, but that's what penny stocks are all about.

I am merely suggesting that there is a legitimate trigger here for some serious upside. Sometimes that's all it takes for a penny stock like CRYP to take off.

And if you're interested in penny stocks, be sure to check out my Top 5 Penny Stocks to Buy Now.

Jamie Dlugosch is a contributor to InvestorPlace.com.

Online Poker Play: CryptoLogic (CRYP) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the just released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth and Sleep Well at Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

In today's market it seems every stock is a bad stock. Doesn't matter what you buy. It goes down. But I'm not talking about good stocks caught in a bad market. This is about bad stocks with no earnings and no real prospects, the ones with great stories but nothing else. Lots of promise, but no profits.

There are lots of bad stocks, many more than good ones. Any prudent investor should avoid them. But most of us don't. There's always a story that seems so compelling, so right, so possible, that many of us buy a bad stock even though it has no earnings, or racked up huge losses. It's only human to hope for the best even when the facts tell you the odds are against success.

Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: How to buy bad stocks

Comfort Zone Investing: How to buy bad stocks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My only penny stock is SpaceDev Inc. (OTCBB: SPDV) and I am not recommending you buy any. I do not recommend any penny stocks and will leave that to others.

If you did buy some, it would probably move the stock because the trading volume is so low that you can actually have an impact. I'm losing a few hundred dollars over the course of about two years.

I bought the company after I had witnessed both launches of Space Ship One into sub-orbital space and wanted to keep track of this interesting company that created the motor and fuel technology.

This week, the company announced that its devices successfully landed on Mars. SpaceDev "provided a wide array of hardware and instruments for the Phoenix Lander that successfully landed on Mars' north arctic plane Sunday, May 25th at 4:53 pm PDT."

SPDV closed Wednesday at $0.62, unchanged. Its 52 week range is $0.51 to $1.05. There are no significant metrics worthy of discussion, but as a shareholder I am supporting an important aerospace company that is designing and building cutting edge space-age technology and keeping me informed and educated. It is located in Southern California, allowing me the opportunity to visit the company easily.

There is little chance of a big financial reward, unless one of its technologies finds some broad popular use, but sometimes there are other things in life that mean more.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of SPDV.

SpaceDev went to Mars in style originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 May 2008 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Profit from penny stocks touting themselves originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In the past, I've written about mPhase Technologies (OTC: XDSL), an obscure penny stock that has been touting its technology on YouTube, and has hired Jonathan Lebed, who settled stock manipulation charges with the SEC as a teenager, to pump its stocks.

Oh, and the CEO, Ronald Durando, recently signed a consent decree with the SEC and agreed to forfeit $150 thousand in gains derived from an alleged pump-and-dump involving a now defunct company called PacketPort.

Given that series of red flags, why have investors given mPhase, a company with a long history of big losses, a market valuation of nearly $25 million? At least part of it probably stems from the companies much-hyped research it is conducting at Bell Labs.

Continue reading Beware of penny stocks touting big name lab connections

Beware of penny stocks touting big name lab connections originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.