Experience of investing in penny stocks for 15 years - not much returns

Wes Gray (Alpha Architect)

For nearly 15 years I traded deep value penny stock type ideas with a decent amount of turnover. We’re talking 10mm market cap companies — sometimes smaller. Seeing a limit book with 10k shares @ 5cents and 20k shares @ 10 cents? No problem. I’ll buy 50k @ .075 and split the difference. The stock is worth 20cent, so what’s a 25% b/d spread gonna do in the long-run?

Long story short, I made a lot of money, lost a lot of money (still riding a carry loss forward from 2011!), pissed a lot of money away on taxes and frictional costs, and learned a lot of lessons that define my current approach to investing.

In the end, I would have arguably been way better off following a simple low brain damage approach…

http://www.basonasset.com/a-collection-of-regrets/