Old Investment Habits Die Hard in Today's Market

I lost everything when the tech stocks crashed in 2001. I had looked like a day trading genius and had turned nothing into a cool mil. As fast as it came, it went. And I went back to my real job.

But that was then and this is now. I never invested again. Whatever I had saved from the scourge is gone and today every penny needs to be accounted for. But I found it irresistible, when I happened upon another online broker, not to open an account for a very small amount of money.

I decided to invest in penny stocks. I looked for stocks that had at one time been worth a lot more then the under a dollar amount they now commanded. I considered the prospect of them going into bankruptcy and also looked at the uniqueness of their product. I felt I really had nothing to lose since the entire amount I was investing was way under $1000. Someone had told me that when companies come out of bankruptcy their stock soars. I made my first penny stock investment for 14 cents a share and shortly after the company did go bankrupt. Still in bankruptcy, I am now making a 365% profit on my investment. Still not a lot of money in dollars and cents, but one hell of a killing in the market.

I put some of my original investment money into AIG. I got a lot of shares and figured that when they recovered I would make another killing. The AIG folks just completed a reverse split and my many shares turned into only 5. I just broke even and will never make any kind of a killing with 5 shares. So before you invest in a really cheap stock see if you can find out about their intention of doing a reverse split.

Then I put some of my last pennies into Citibank only because it is beyond my belief that Citibank won't recover. I have a 100% return on that investment and so far they have not said anything about a reverse split.

I still don't have $2000. But this old day trader is getting itchy. I really do not have the funds to risk and the small profit will not make much difference in my life. So I've increased my prayers to the Gods of the lottery. I would love to make up the losses of the past. Betcha I could.