OTC Market

Interpreting the OTC Market is a crucial component of discerning how to buy penny stocks. A majority of penny stocks aren’t listed on a stock market like NASDAQ or the NYSE but instead on the OTC market (or OTC securities market).

NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation) controls a little component of the over-the-counter market with the NASDAQ National Market (NNM), but this portion of the OTC Market doesn’t include penny stocks.

Pink OTC Markets, at one time called the National Quotation Bureau (NQB) and colloquially referred to as “Pink Sheets”, operates on the most active component of the OTC market. If you begin earnest and extended penny stock trading, you’ll at some point deal in Pink Sheets. Continue reading

Practice Trading Stocks To Reduce Risk

Most consider penny stock trading to be the exchange of stocks at a price between $1 and $5 per share. You’ll also see them labeled as micro cap stocks, microcap stocks, nano stocks or even just small cap stocks. But that doesn’t mean there is less risk involved in this market; in fact these stocks generally carry more risk. That’s why it’s a good idea to practice trading before you start investing real money.

Penny stock trading occurs within the OTCBB (Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board) or on the Pink Sheets. So you’ll also find these stocks labeled as OTC stocks (OTC stands for over-the-counter). They tend to represent smaller companies, newer companies or struggling companies. They either haven’t proven themselves enough to list on NASDAQ or the grand New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or in some cases they’ve been penalized by those exchanges and removed.

There is a common misnomer regarding this type of trading. Continue reading