Great Chalenge - Your help needed !!

hahah... I would say WEL (boots and coots). They have been slammed 60% in a month and a half. If oil stays the same price, the market subsides, they just might make it to Thailand in 3 months.

Don't ask me. I personally would take my money and put it in an insured bank account.

My feeling is is that the market is too unstable right now to make any bets but go ahead if you are willing to take big risks. You might win, who knows?

Hi Verushka,
Nice to see you back here - we missed you :)

Actually risk is always important. Why, when you're planning to risk $1000 say, would you play the slots with their lower payout ratio, rather than play craps with its much better odds? Why if your planning to risk $1000 would you not bet it where you could make $10000 i.e. leverage your bets? If your friend truly doesn't care if he pisses away his money, then that would be his best approach.

To do this your friend should buy an option of some kind and place it where and when the bet has the highest chances of success. Playing the market is to a certain degree like counting the cards. If you don't play it with an edge, you are doomed to fail ultimately. If you don't know when to walk away, just save yourself the grief and hand over your money now. Why is it the casino wants you to play for hours on end rather than to walk in and place one giant wager? Because the odds FAVOR them. If you place one bet at the right time, you might just win. In the long run, the house always wins.

I will get back to you on my exact suggestion.

Dear Count,

I think one can make alot of money, with puts, calls, options, straddles, strangles, etc.,- I just don't know how they work and I can't do them.

Other people can make alot of money on these things and constantley do, but that is just not my thing.

You are right, in the market at least you might have a chance against the housel.

If you can cover your downside , you have it made. If you can use leverage you are right, you can "play" this market.

I'm not clever enough to figure out how this all works.

Thanks Count.
He's not much of a trader, so it has to be an equity, a single stock.
The challenge is to make 100%, not more.
Thanks Verushka :)

I have an absolutely fantastic suggestion. However, if you or your friend don't want to follow my advice then I'm not going to provide it. What would be the point. Your friend will kick himself for not doing it but whatever.

I'm sure your friend could find someone he could give the money to to place his "bet" as I outline it. Let me know if you change your mind. I will accept nothing less than doing exactly what I say if your friend makes the wager based on my advice. The reason is that it won't fulfill his need to double his money if he doesn't do it exactly the way I say. He might not double it with just owning the underlying.

I would also expect your friend and do the honorable thing and tip the dealer. Otherwise, good luck to your friend I hope he gets his vacation.

dEAR Miller,

Can't help you. I never buy penny stocks. I generally only buy stocks trading over $10.00.

Penny stocks are not my thing. You will have to get someone else's opinion.

If there was an equity that either doubled or halved in value on a daily basis I would be a very, very rich man by now. And believe me, I've spent a fair amount of time looking for something that followed that pattern.

I seriously think the best odds you will have is to go a casino and put it on all on black or red on the roulette table. 49% double or nothing is about the best you are gonna get.

If really want to do equities, trading a penny stock and hoping for a big bump might work. You could also try opening a margin account with one of the leveraged ETF's. These swing up and down over 10% some days, which you can magnify with a margin account. I've never actually traded on margin so unfortunately I don't know the details of how this works.

Hi guys,
Count, I sent him your offer - sounds very tempting :)
Why do you guys feel this needs to be a penny stock play?
Doesn't 4 months to double seem reasonable?

I suggest that he try negotiating a shorter trip for the two of them that would cost the same as the one for one person, that way he wins no matter in that he still gets to be with his girlfriend and he doesn't lose his money.

Penny stocks are the most likely to double in value. They are also the least evaluated professionally so the information you obtain is typically more limited and thus the plays are riskier. If you had asked for this previously, I would have suggested buying FRE or FNM when their prices were under 50 cents a share because I felt confident they would bounce back to at least $1 per share. Although it bounced back a little quicker than I expected. I will check a couple of possibilities maybe Tazmanian Mines - I think it's TRE.

What I meant is that penny stocks are the most likely to double in a 3 month period.

I would buy ABK. I fully expect it to double within the next week baring any significant G7 or G20 stumble. If the markets are higher tomorrow we will have a two or three day rally at best before we head back down. ABK closed at $1.70. I bought in a $1.40 after 3pm Friday, after hours it is at $1.85. Was $4.30 five trading sessions ago and over $10 a couple weeks back. Purely a momentum, short term, in and out play.

Nothng, or calls for DIA (Diamond Trust) 85.00 strike December.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=OHPLG.X

One possibility is BSX. It's selling at it's lowest point this year (under $8) and typically stays closer to $13 range. If it falls below $7 next week then definitely buy it. The shunt was finally approved on Friday though so I expect there might be a pickup on this quickly next week.

Will check others.

The only thing I would do for this type of market is to do credit spreads on bearish stocks. If your friend really does not care about the risk he can find an option which can give him 100% return in a few weeks.

What's the time frame? If you guys want more than one vacation in a year + from now, this is the penny stock you want to buy:

AUG.V Augen cap corp.

nearly 66% of their assets are sitting in cash waiting to buy a few companies. They are basically a holdings company and they hold some mineral stocks as well, and that's a good hedger. It's trading at a stupidly cheap price b/c the TSX market pretty much got killed. check out the charts and you'll see its holdings and it's potential a year from now. I bought at .10 and it's at .06 and I'm not worried.

it can easily go to .12 for a double up but a proper fair value of the stock a month ago was .20 - .25 a share, pending on which assets you want to include as appreciative or not.

I agree with rojack about ABK.

Another possible play is AIB. I'd put in a conditional buy at $12.50 or less. It was less than $12 on friday but jumped up to over $16 in after hours trading. I think it may drop back down so you can pick it up on a conditional buy early this week. It was selling for over $25 in early September. AIB shouldn't have been as affected by the mortgage crisis as American banks so I expect the long term value to definitely remain solid. It will definitely double over time but in 3 months, I can't guarantee that.

RBS, at the extremely low price of $1.45 at closing, is also a good short term recovery possibility of doubling. The British government just passed a bailout procedure and I believe RBS will benefit from this bailout. I would do a conditional buy of $1.50 or less on Monday and put in a conditional sell at $3 or whatever the doubling amount is. Alternately, I suspect this has very good long term investment potential.

hello all,

Gambling in the market is far from my usual approach, so my inclination is this challenge to look for a "double or something" scenario rather than "double or nothing." You should never lose all your money on a stock, unless you buy something that doesn't have any intrinsic value whatever. I like AIB --which I should admit to owning--but I have no idea whether the ADRs will double in the next three months, or go to $5 first.

I ran a screener with the following criteria: Beta >3, ROE >20, PEG <1 (suggesting the analysts haven't thrown up their hands and gone to hide under the bed). Of the list, my favorites are FTK, GIGM, and SDA. Sadia made a very, very bad currency bet, but its earning power remains intact. I don't know much about Flotek and Gigamedia, but their numbers and long-term prospects look pretty good.

In the current environment, there are so many attractive values that your friend could well place his "bet" on something which, if it doesn't double, could nevertheless provide an attractive long-term return: seed money for the next vacation?

Good hunting!

BG

Dear Miller,

Are the symbols that you have listed in your portfolio or are just just thinking of buying them??? Can you answer why you would buy bankrupt companies? abk,fnm,fre are all down 98-99% ytd. How do you think you can make any money on these?

verushka,

Those symbols are marked because others made comments on them. That is the only reason those are listed in this discussion.

I found more recommendations, FTEK, definitely for long term but possibly doubling within the 3 months. Even if your friend doesn't double in 3 months, it will double eventually of that I have no doubt.

Another possible stock to double in price within the three month period is ACPW. I'd try to buy it at 0.35 and sell it at .70. However, it might be possible with a buy at .40 to double to .80, but I feel this is less likely in the three months.

verushka - see how now FTEK and ACPW have been added to the symbols listed in this conversation (now that I have mentioned them)?

HYDG: Pure SPECULATION (Penny Stock) but certainly a 'double' even 'triple candidate during the next three months

I'd bet on GRH to double in the next three months. Especially since the Texas legislature approved putting a considerable amount of money into wind turbines for electricity! You should be able to get it for $5.40 or less tomorrow.

Actually I think GU might be a better bet. If you get it for $3 or less.

I recommend MWAV, buy at 20 cents or less. Maybe 25 cents is ok, SELL when it doubles either 40 cents or 50 cents.

I almost forgot there's PXPL, BUY at 62 cents or less and watch very closely for when it jumps up to $1.20 or so. It goes in cycles pretty regularly.

And there's also BWTR. Definitely buy for 1.20 or under. It was 3.62 Aug 08, $2.54 on Sept 15, and $2.41 Sept 19.

save the money and get 4 new thai girlfriends,
nothing is more useless than a GF in thailand

I agree with phdinsuntan - leave your girlfriend here...

PHD- I like the way you think :-) It's all about getting value,,,, ;-)

I keep getting em's that Miller needs my help about his problem. I have given my opinion.

I don't want to ans. this anymore. It is his problem about a vacation.

Here is the #1 option most likely todoublein 3 months:

REFR

If he had bought some GIGM on Friday and held for 3months I'm sure it will be around $12 by December-January. lol

wow guys, thanks for all these great tips. We'll need to seep through them and I promise to get back to you with a verdict.
PHD, I'll be sure to convey that advice.
Thank you all. By the looks of the market today he's about a day late..

So, did you examine any of these suggestions?

I forgot to suggest APWR and it went up 68% today alone... although both of my other recommendations (GRH and GU) went up 28.44% and 38.74% today as well. I'm not sure he can still get 100% increase from the present starting point (not where I initially recommended) - BEST of LUCK!

I can't believe I didn't mention UAL or UAUA. It's up 99.32% for me at closing today.

Right and today there's a killer price for AUY $3.97 at closing and after trading it was only up to $4.10. AUY is definite buy for long term investment, good opportunities for swing traders as well.

Have you checked the prediction markets?

http://www.intrade.com/

Sell EUR/USD we could see 1.2000 levels. Try the currency options traded on ISE. These things can move.

In the morning is another great entry point if your friend wants to select something and make his bet!

Nice call on RBS, Cosmic! I bought it on your recommendation and today am over 200% in gains!