How low can you go?
Incredibly low, apparently, if you really were dumb... (sorry) ...misinformed enough to bite on some of those SPAM e-mail offers for sure-thing stocks.
Our favorite new site around here is "SPAM STOCK TRACKER: Just how much can you lose? Tracking penny stocks, hot stock tips and other stock scams coming from SPAM can be fun!"
The premise is, what would happen if you bought 1,000 shares of every stock tip you got in SPAM e-mail?
Since the blogger isn't really rich enough to buy all that stock, he has set up pretend accounts to track those fantasy stocks. Think of it as fantasy football for the financial set.
Every day you can see how well he's doing with those stocks, individually and as a whole.
Trust me. It's ugly.
On May 5, the blogger began to buy stocks.
As of Oct. 21, he has spent an imaginary $17,405. But the stocks are worth only $8,745. (Reminds me of my 401(k)after I rode the tech bust a little too far down.)
What gems can we spotlight from his chart?
Here's one: Nomad International was purchased for 8.5 cents on May 6. It's now worth 7 tenths of a cent. That's a 91.7 percent drop!
Here's another: First Canadian, a holding company that was worth 41 cents on May 6 and is now worth 99 percent less, in the range of 6 one-hundredths of a cent. I think the envelope your statement comes in is worth more than that.
But you can be a winner. Yes, These Dark Times can make you rich. Just ask Sniffex. Honest, I don't make this stuff up.
It makes small, light explosives testing devices and is finding eager markets among governments around the world.
If you had bought Sniffex on June 27 at $1.17 a share, you'd have more than doubled your money by 134 percent to $2.74.
You can thank Al-Qaida for that one.