I’m not going to make you wade through a long-winded post to get to the point, so I stuck it in the title.

Somewhat surprisingly, I received an inordinately large number of emails about this post, and I am still getting them to this day.

I wanted to wait at least a week or so before mentioning it, because it’s really tacky to pump your own stocks on your website … especially right after buying them.  It’s called “pump and dump” and not only do small website owners do this, but major brokerages and analysts pump their stocks publicly all the time.

Why do you think banks, brokerages and analysts issue ratings for a stock?

For your benefit?

Free advice to help you make better investing decisions?

There is no altruism in the world.

The reason they issue ratings is because they, or a client or affiliate has bought or shorted the security, and the big boys know that if they come out with a “strong buy” or “strong sell” on a stock, the stock will very often move in the direction of the call for a solid 6 trading hours or more.

They know that Joe and Jane Soccermom are watching CNBC, and Joe and Jane were taught in college that “analysts” are educated folks that know what they are talking about.  I doesn’t matter that “analysts” often fail to exceed returns of the “dartboard test” where stocks are chosen at random … these guys HAVE DEGREES!

If Jim Cramer says to hold onto Bear Stearns, then goddamn it … you better hold on to Bear Stearns.

Exhibit A:

Remember, you can’t spell “analyst” without “anal”.

But hey, who can blame you for losing everything in Bear …

All of the executives in the company were very professional, credentialed, and respected people in the field of finance.

How could you go wrong?

What’s my point?

My point is that nobody knows anything, and if they tell you otherwise, they are either:

1) Insider trading

2) Lying

There is no third choice.  Those are the only two options.

Buying a stock because Benjamin Big Balls Brokerage put a “buy” rating on it is no more safe or secure than doing an hour of your own research and finding something that looks reasonable.

Don’t believe the hype.  Ever.

Which brings me to EGT:

Don’t buy the stock that I bought.

I am not recommending it to anyone.

Penny stocks are speculative gambles, and should be treated as such.  Don’t put anything into them that you are not willing to lose.

I think it has a reasonably attractive risk/reward at .04

The downside is 4 cents.

They seem to have a reasonable chance at profitability (almost no penny stocks in this range are profitable), they are very heavily insider owned, their own officers recently bought shares in the 45 cent range (ten times higher than it is now) and the float is about 65 million.

That’s not a ton of shares in play for such a cheap stock,  therefore, even a tepid amount of buying interest can move it.

Then again, they have major operations in Cambodia.

CAMBODIA!!!

A place with an only slightly better standard of living than Las Vegas.

You don’t have to analyze it and tell me why I am wrong.  I’m aware of the complete picture, but I still think it’s reasonable at 4 cents.

You can’t bash a 4 cent stock … it has bashed itself.

It’s a purely speculative holding.  Most portfolios have a certain amount of speculation (Biotechs, etc), and this may not be a good speculation for you.

Certain people were just burning with curiosity.

Although I have to admit, I don’t know why.

Who in their right mind would take stock advice from a complete idiot who runs a psuedo-Vegas website and masturbates 12 times a day?

You would have to be fucking insane.

Before buying any stock, call Jim Cramer.

He’s the experienced expert.

I’m just a poor white man trying to make it in a black man’s world.

This Obama presidency is going to be fun.