Looking for: Spam Email Stock Quotes, crazy stock tips. Will use for good, not evil.

March 8, 2007 12:02 PM

I need to become the worst short-term stock trader in the world (or best, depending on your perspective). Has anyone gotten any good spam stock tips recently? Seriously...Please help.

At work, there's a contest for the best stock portfolio in a 5-week period. We're allowed to sell short, and do whatever basic transactions we want...and we don't have to include 'service charges'. We have to invest in 5 companies equally.

Anyway, I've read the research that those internet spam tips tank with consistancy. While it would be too costly and pretty much impossible to short those stocks in real life, I figured why not do it in the game? So, does anyone have any resources on how to find RECENT (read: last couple of days) spam stock quotes? If you do have some, could you please include the day you received the email?

Otherwise, do you have any good stock tips that may not be realistic in real life, but could net an amazing return in a 5 week span?

posted by evadery to work & money (20 comments total)

This analysis on stock spam might be of interest.
posted by jclovebrew at 12:18 PM on March 8, 2007

You may also have some problems finding companies to short, since the SEC just suspended trading in 35 of them.
posted by xil at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2007

From my inbox:

3/7 - CBRP
3/6 - CBRP, CBRP, CBRP, MPRG, VCDY, VCDY, VCDY, VCDY
...

Huge returns are expected!
posted by Bugg at 12:38 PM on March 8, 2007

I don't know that it is possible in the real world to short penny stocks. Whether that intrudes in your fantasy league, I'm not sure.
posted by alms at 12:41 PM on March 8, 2007

Why not just look at the newspaper and choose random penny stocks that are under $1? I doubt they do any better than spam stocks.
posted by Cog at 12:43 PM on March 8, 2007

according to this site's analysis of spam stocks, if you buy before you get the spam you'll make some money, but if you buy after you'll lose...so unless you want to spam people yourself it seems hard to do.
posted by jourman2 at 1:00 PM on March 8, 2007

Delta Airlines.
posted by mattbucher at 1:03 PM on March 8, 2007

Do you have a fixed amount of money to invest in these stocks? Unless it's a VERY large amount, I don't think any of them will move enough to make any real difference.

My understanding of stock spam is that they're trying to aggregate enough buyers to cover their sell positions; their stakes are large enough that they require a good amount of people to buy in order to make it work, so one person isn't going to affect it enough. Moreover, if you held a large enough position to make a difference, you're less likely to be able to sell at the specific price you wanted.

Otherwise, do you have any good stock tips that may not be realistic in real life, but could net an amazing return in a 5 week span?

I don't understand this- what's an example?
posted by mkultra at 1:05 PM on March 8, 2007

Pump and dump, on Wikipedia.
posted by mkultra at 1:06 PM on March 8, 2007

I think if there were a openly-known way to get lots of money in five weeks, everyone would be doing it and it would then stop working. In many ways the market is random, so it would be hard to pick five companies that were sure to go up.

What you might choose to do, then, is leverage yourself very highly on some random or semi-random stocks. Options are a good way to do this. A single options contract gives you control over 100 shares of stock for a limited time at a greatly reduced price. For example, lets look at SPY (S&P 500 index exchange traded fund). From this page:

An April 20th expiration call on SPY at 140 will run you 2.90, or $290 for a contract of 100. Say you have 10,000 to invest. You can buy (10,000 / 140) = 71 shares of SPY. Or you can buy (10,000 / 290) = 34 contracts that let you control 3,400 shares of SPY.

On April 20th (within your five weeks) each contract will be worth $100 for each $1 over 140 SPY sells for. If it gets back up to 146, the recent high, you will net (3,400 * (146 - 140)) = $20,400. Great success! By contrast, if you own the shares, you make (71 * (146-140)) = $426.

Sounds great, doesn't it? In real life though, if SPY fell to $135, your options would be worth $0, while the actual shares would e worth $9585, which is why you wouldn't do this in the real world.

So pick some companies, and choose options on them. Calls if you think they will go up, and puts if you think they will go down. For the strike price, pick the current stock price. Maybe you will get lucky, but leverage is definitely your friend in this case.
posted by procrastination at 1:17 PM on March 8, 2007

All from the last 2 days of spam:

NNCP
CBRP
PHYA
ARSS
VCDY
posted by mbrubeck at 1:45 PM on March 8, 2007

To clairfy, I know that I couldn't short spam stock in real life. However, since this is make believe, I want to short the hell out of it for it (as the research shows, a decent bet at a decent loss.

Again, more spam ideas or trades/stocks that will make easy money in a vacuum (but not in real life) are appreciated.
posted by evadery at 1:51 PM on March 8, 2007

Procrastination: Thanks - that's exactly the kind of insanity I'm looking for.
posted by evadery at 1:54 PM on March 8, 2007

Thirding CBRP.
posted by knave at 2:12 PM on March 8, 2007

As stated, I don't know if it will be of any use to you, but here's a daily updated list of spam-contaminated stocks.
posted by Simon! at 2:57 PM on March 8, 2007

Quick follow up - things seem to look bad in the sub-prime lenders market. One company (NEW) lost 68% of its value in 1 day. Puts on that would have made a mint. You might try pretend buying some put options on sub-prime mortgage lenders. This page is tracking some of the worst cases. Nothing may happen in 5 weeks, but then again it seems to be where some of the downward action is.
posted by procrastination at 4:49 PM on March 8, 2007

buying enough penny stock to make a lot of money isn't always easy, even if it is going up

filling the order could be tough, and you're likely to have boosted its price too high by the time you're done!

check out motley fool for some tips
posted by Salvatorparadise at 5:23 PM on March 8, 2007

nthing NNCP
posted by krisjohn at 8:36 PM on March 8, 2007

Short over-the-counter or bulletin-board stocks. Since this is a transaction prohibited to the actual market, you can make virtual money off it.
posted by ikkyu2 at 3:40 PM on March 9, 2007

So, I bought the following 5 spam stocks to short:

CAMBRIDGE RESOURCES (CBRP.PK)
Canyon Resources Corp. (CAU)
CARBON RACE CORP (CBRJ.PK)
JUINA MINING NEW (ACEN.PK)
AMEROSSI EC INC (ARSS.PK)

Buy high, sell low, baby!

I'll keep you updated on my progress...thanks for your help.
posted by evadery at 9:11 AM on March 12, 2007