Avon is a Real Company, I Can Trust the News Right??? Wrong: $AVP Bulgarian Man Arrested!

I recently had $AVP on my watch list because of reading a piece of good news about the company. My logic was to see if the name recognition and the good news as a catalyst would push the ticker into a nice uptrend where I could get in and out for a 10% to 40% gain.


Yahoo Finance Article:



The momentum didn't come as fast as other trades, so I left it on my watch list.

As you can see on the chart, the following day of the article there was a small bump in the stock but we didn't see much action until today. Funny enough, it was reported by the US Attorney's Office n Southern District of NY that a Bulgarian man was arrested for stock fraud...

"Bulgarian Man Arrested And Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With $400 Million Market Manipulation Scheme Involving Avon Stock, As Well As Market Manipulation And Insider Trading Of Two Other Securities" ~ https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/bulgarian-man-arrested-and-charged-manhattan-federal-court-400-million-market

"U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As alleged, Nedko Nedev engaged in elaborate schemes to manipulate the market in various publicly traded securities.  His alleged lies caused massive swings in share prices and trading volume, including a sham tender offer that required the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading in Avon shares.  Nedev’s alleged securities fraud schemes also involved purchasing shares of a U.S. insurance company he knew, through inside information, to be the acquisition target of a European company he was advising.  If you manipulate the U.S. securities markets with disinformation and deception, whether from New York or from Bulgaria, as Nedev is alleged to have done, you will be held to account.”

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This is a great example of why penny stocks get such a bad rap. Because of their low prices they are easier to manipulate and scam than larger companies like $AMZN... Although don't be fooled, those larger priced stocks get messed with too. Also because of the nature of pennies, people who are gullible, gamblers, or scammers themselves tend to trade them.

So with that said, hear this; don't invest in pennies... trade them! Tim Sykes has spoken in great length about this.

We don't care all that much what the news is, what the earnings are, or who's doing the pumping. All we need to care about is the movement, the momentum, volume, volatility... the up and down part.

We need to teach ourselves to see when a catalyst is hot and to be ready to strike "like a sniper" (Tim's words). You get in and get out and take your profits with you or cut your losses quickly. Then from the safety of your computer you can shake your fist at the scum like Nedko Nedev and yell "Fuck You Scammer! I'm Getting Rich While You're Going to Sit in Prison!"