Are you a penny stock trader looking for a podcast to boost your knowledge and find new ideas? Great, well the only problem is there aren’t podcasts dedicated to covering low-priced stocks. But fear not, I have scoured the web to find the top five podcasts that are worth listening to.

1. SteadyTrade

Hands down SteadyTrade is one of the best penny stock podcasts around. SteadyTrade started in 2016 and is hosted by experienced traders – Tim Bohen, Stephen Johnston and Kim Ann Curtin. Brought to you by StocksToTrade, the show continues to go from strength to strength as it recently surpassed the 150th episode mark. They share detailed advice on how to become a profitable day trader, discussing everything you need to know. In particular I enjoy listening to their stories and they attract excellent guests such as Matthew Monaco and Jack Schwager.

2. Pennies: Going in Raw

Pennies: Going in Raw is a fun yet informative podcast by Hugh Henne and Dan, Deity of Dips. Hugh Henne is a 22 year-old swing trader who allegedly became a millionaire in 2020 through trading volatile penny stocks. Along with his co-host they discuss the latest stock market news and trade ideas covering – penny stocks, price targets, reverse splits, mergers and more. Be warned though, the strategies they use are risky. Don’t copy their ideas without doing your own research before placing a trade.

3. Planet MicroCap

Planet MicroCap is a small cap investing podcast hosted by Robert Kraft. They interview some of the smartest investors in the small cap space including the likes of Ian Cassel, Paul Andreola and Maj Soueidan. You won’t hear them talking about the latest penny stock pump and dumps! They’ll most likely be talking about small, high quality companies with big upside potential. Perfect for long term investors not interested in day trading.

4. In Penny Stock

Mubarak Shah from inpennystock.com shares his penny stock strategies, advice and resources to help new traders gain an edge in the market. As mentioned, the podcast is targeted to beginners with limited knowledge, not intermediate or veteran traders. Overall the information is very easy to understand but mostly he uses the podcast to upsell listeners to paid courses. I like how the episodes are short and sweet, instead of long-rambling episodes that provide no education. They’re haven’t been any new episodes uploaded since March 2020.

5. Stock Day Media

Stock Day Media is another popular podcast for micro cap enthusiasts. Similar to Planet MicroCap they cover the latest micro cap news and interview leading authorities in the industry. Host Everett Jolly has over 25 years experience in the financial sector. He has a wealth of knowledge and a passion for teaching others about the micro cap market. They upload episodes on a weekly basis to keep listeners engaged.

How to Find More Podcasts

If you’re not satisfied with my picks above, visit the major podcast platforms such as Google Podcasts or Spotify. Simply search “penny stocks” in the search bar to discover podcasts that might not be showing up in Google. While you won’t find many podcasts dedicated to penny stocks, there will be general trading podcasts with episodes that cover penny shares. It’s also great for finding interviews from traders such as Tim Sykes and Hugh Henne.

Can you imagine being prosecuted by a federal agency at the young age of 15? If you want to know what that might be like, try speaking to Jonathan Lebed. Starting when he was thirteen, Lebed began trading penny stocks from his bedroom computer in the suburbs of New Jersey. He was good at it too, earning over a million dollars in just two years. In 2001 things came crashing down and Lebed became the first ever minor prosecuted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He was accused of stock manipulation, and if found guilty could be forced to give back all the money he had earned in two years of penny stock trading. 

The problem for Mr. Lebed was that the method he used to make money on penny stocks – artificially increasing the demand for stocks he owned by posting online about them – is a form of illegal stock manipulation. The source of trouble for Lebed comes from the level of influence he attempted to have on the market. He did not just recommend his stock holdings to other traders online, he created multiple accounts and posted thousands of messages over a two-year period. His strategy was successful, as he single-handedly influenced the price of several of his holdings over that span – earning himself millions of dollars in the process. 

Lebed was able to build so much hype around his stock holdings that on some occasions he increased the daily trade volume of a particular stock from around 60,000 a day, to more than one million. Lebed was able to earn as much as $74,000 in a single day using these methods, but his minimum gain for one five-month period was $12,000 in one day. Ultimately, Lebed and the SEC settled out-of-court and Lebed was forced to pay back a portion of what he had gained through his misdeeds. It is worth noting that Lebed was able to walk away without admitting any wrongdoing, and while maintaining the vast majority of his illegal income. 

In fact, Lebed had earned as much as $800,000 during just six months of trading and the SEC had only identified eleven incidents of Lebed illegally promoting his stocks – in reality he had done so an untold number of times. Assuming he only earned the eight hundred grand the SEC went after him for, Lebed was able to keep as much as half a million dollars after paying back $285,000 to the SEC. Overall, Jonathan Lebed made out like a bandit from the entire ordeal and lost very little in the process. 

It is worth taking some time to consider whether what Lebed did should really be against the law, or at least if he should have been punished for taking advantage of the fledgling internet’s ability to generate artificial hype as a mere child. Lebed started trading in the late 90’s when the internet was basically the wild west. There are laws against the behavior Lebed engaged in for a reason – if every trader behaved this way there would be absolute chaos in the market – but to prosecute a minor for these acts seems excessive.

One person certainly did not think Jonathan had done anything wrong – his father, Greg Lebed. “I’m proud of my son!” He shouted while confronting the media. Later on in a television interview about his son he said that Jonathan was not selling drugs or stealing from people, so it could have been worse. His mother did not appear upset with her son either, saying that she was upset the SEC never contacted her son or either parent before sending a subpoena to their home. 

These days Lebed lays low and has not made the news in several years. It is impossible to say without asking him whether his youthful transgressions – and the hundreds of thousands they earned him – were worth the trouble. Perhaps attempting to gain something from the publicity his misdeeds generated, he ran for Township Council of Cedar Grove in 2003 but was unsuccessful.  As of 2010, he still resides in his home state of New Jersey, where he managed Lebed Biz LLC, a penny stock website.

Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker and motivational speaker with a net worth of -$100 million. The Brooklyn native’s crazy life story was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ in 2013. Once worth millions, Belfort has experienced a massive fall from grace.

Early Life

Belfort was an entrepreneur at an early age. He began selling ice-cream in-between high school and college at a local beach with his childhood friend Elliot Loewenstern and made a cool $20,000.

After graduating from American University with a degree in biology he ended up in the industry of door-to-door meat and seafood sales. Although Belfort experienced initial success, he inevitably filed for bankruptcy when he turned 25. This was his turning point as a family friend helped him gain a position as a trainee stockbroker at L.F. Rothschild and the man we all know was born.

Unfortunately, his time at L.F. Rothschild didn’t last long. Belfort’s first day as a licensed broker was known as ‘Black Monday’ which triggered the 1987 stock market crash. L.F. Rothschild went bust and Belfort was soon out of a job.

He used his Series 7 license to secure a job with The Investors Center, a small investment firm that specialised in promoting penny stocks. Jordan spent hours cold calling and pitching crappy penny stocks to mom-and-pop type investors. Here he perfected the art of selling over the phone and crafting the perfect script. Receiving a 50% commission on all sales, it wasn’t long until Jordan was making big money. Not happy making a few thousand per month, Jordan quit his job to start up with own brokerage.

Stratton Oakmont

Jordan Belfort co-founded Stratton Oakmont with his partner in crime, Danny Porush (portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie). Stratton Oakmont was a brokerage firm that promoted worthless penny stocks to uneducated investors.

For those less financially savvy, penny stocks are shares that trade under $5 per share and are very risky investments. 90% of penny stocks are worthless and only exist so shareholders can sell their shares at inflated prices. They are a hunting ground for scammers looking to make money. Those new to stock trading get suckered in with the lure of making huge returns.

Belfort and his employees used aggressive sales tactics to increase share prices and later dumped the same stocks for substantial profits. Clients were left holding the bag and suffered massive losses. The scheme was so successful that Belfort had a net worth of $200 million at his peak before the brokerage collapsed. Due to pressure from the SEC, Oakmont was forced to close down in 1996. 

While the brokerage operated it was thriving and employed approximately 1300 people. During this time Jordan was living the high life, spending millions on fast cars, drugs, mansions and even a yacht. He bought the yacht from Coco Chanel but later sank it off the coast of Italy. 

Jordan Belfort’s Net Worth Explained

You may be wondering how someone can end up with a negative net worth of $100 million! This is due to the fact he was convicted by the SEC of securities fraud and money laundering in 1999. As well as receiving a 4-year jail sentence (22 months served), Belfort was also ordered to pay back a sum of $110.4 million to the victims he defrauded. With approximately $13 million paid back to date, Belfort still has a long way to go in terms of his reparations.

Over the last few years Belfort has made little effort to repay investors. He continues to live the high-life, renting a beautiful property by the sea in California and another five bedroom mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The 58 year old only pays back $4,000 to $5,000 per month, at this rate it will take 1,600 years to clear the debt.

What is Jordan Belfort up to Today?

Since his release from prison in 2006, Belfort has gone on to publish three books: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2007), ‘Catching the Wolf of Wall Street’ (2009), and a self-help book ‘The Way of the Wolf’ (2017). Receiving an advance of $500,000 for his first book just a few days after his release, it seemed like he had a knack for making money.

This initial book went on to see the popular film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio and featured the same title. Despite this film making $392 million at the box office, Belfort sold the rights for a mere $1 million. Out of this $1 million, only $21,000 went towards his restitution payments leaving his victims a little bewildered. I wouldn’t be surprised if the con artist has millions stashed away in off-shore bank accounts. A lot of wealthy businessmen have their fortunes located offshore so the authorities can’t easily track their money.

Belfort has continuously stated his full intent to pay back his former investors and has been earning a substantial income through motivational speaking. Touring the world teaching entrepreneurs his ‘Straight Line Persuasion’ system, showing how to improve your sales by implementing various persuasions tactics. The ‘Straight Line Persuasion’ course, retails online for $399. Belfort boasts he’ll earn more money in recent years than he ever did at the height of his stockbroking career.

With Belfort earning anywhere between $30,000-$80,000 per talk it’s easy to see how he could amass another fortune so quickly. He’s also stated that he fully intends on using 100% of his U.S. tour to fund his restitution package.

Relationships

Not surprisingly, Mr Belfort is a ladies man and has been divorced twice. His first marriage to Denise Lombardo lasted six years and ended in 1991. Jordan met his second wife Nadine Caridi at a party at his mansion. The pair married in 1991 and had two children together before splitting in 2008. Currently, the former stockbroker is engaged to Anne Koppe since 2012 but they have not married yet. Hopefully, third time’s the charm!

Timothy Sykes is a penny stock trader and entrepreneur with a net worth of $15 million as of 2021. The 39-year-old is an outspoken character well-known within the day trading community for turning $12,000 into $6 million with penny stocks.

Tim’s unique story and personality led to him featuring on Wall Street Warriors, a reality TV Series starring up and coming traders on Wall Street. During filming Sykes was fresh out of college, running a small cap hedge fund out of his New York apartment.

The show was a cult hit and the publicity served as a huge launching pad for Tim’s education business. After the show aired, he received hundreds of emails from people wanting to learn how to trade penny stocks.

Flash forward to 2020, Tim now has thousands of students around the globe and helped create four millionaire students.

How much does Tim Sykes make a year?

Tim Sykes has proven himself to be quite the entrepreneur with multiple ventures that earn him about $4 million every year. He makes $250,000 per year from day trading. Even during the coronavirus pandemic he’s still making a nice living.

Blogging

Tim Sykes started his blog in 2007 as a way to promote his new book. The website was an instant hit attracting over 100,000 visitors per month, becoming the number one penny stock blog. Since then website traffic and income have continued to grow, going from $60,000 to $500,000+ per month.

His educational empire consists of DVD’s and a membership service. Right now, there are two different monthly options – Pennystocking Silver ($149.95) and Tim Alerts ($74.95). 1,000 students paying $150 each month is nice residual income. Tim also runs a Millionaire Challenge program where those serious about learning pay a cool $5,000.

In addition to selling products, affiliate marketing is another avenue for Sykes to earn revenue. He used to make money with affiliate marketing, promoting various brokerages such as Etrade and Interactive Brokers. These brokers no longer have affiliate programs but he still promotes them despite not receiving compensation.

Book – An American Hedge Fund

To capitalize on the hype after Wall Street Warriors, Sykes self-published a book detailing his journey to penny stock millionaire and the failure of his hedge fund. The book is an interesting read but doesn’t discuss in detail strategies or chart patterns he followed to make consistent profits.

In the book, Sykes reveals his hatred for the hedge fund industry and the mistakes he made along the way. Currently, the book is available to buy in paperback from Amazon for $20 but can be downloaded for free in PDF from his website. I would estimate he made at least $200,000 in book sales and it also helps drive new students.

Investimonials

Investimonials.com is another venture set up in 2011. The website provides financial reviews of brokers, chat rooms, software and newsletters. Users sign up and post honest reviews of financial products they’ve purchased.

Since anyone can sign up and contribute reviews, the site monitors the content to ensure opinions are legitimate. Investimonials has been a huge success for Tim, acting as a massive platform to sell advertising and drive more visitors back to his website.

Profit.ly

Profit.ly is a social trading community where like-minded traders can share ideas and verify their trading performance. The community now has approximately 180,000 members. The idea for Profit.ly came after Covestor removed Sykes because he trades volatile penny stocks so members couldn’t replicate the same trades.

The site has a leaderboard to track the best traders within the community. As of right now, the top traders are Tim Grittani (Kroyrunner), Gregg Sciabica (Lx21), Steven Dux, Michael Goode and Superman. It’s interesting to note out of the six people I mentioned, 4 of them were students of Timothy Sykes. The whole point of the site is for beginners to review the track record of talented traders and study their strategies.

StocksToTrade

Stockstotrade is a stock screening and charting tool developed to find new penny stock trading opportunities. Tim has invested hundreds of thousands by hiring a team of programmers to create the software. According to Linkedin, they have 27 employees working on the tool. They are continually developing the platform and adding new features every week.

Like all the top screening tools it is expensive. Currently, there are two payment options, $179.95 per month or $1899.50 annually. Luckily they have a 7 day trial for $7, so you can try the tool before committing to a paid account. Stockstotrade.com is still a start-up with high costs, so I doubt the company is making any worthwhile profits.

House

With a personal fortune of $15 million, he can afford to live in a mansion and drive around in a Lamborghini. Below is a video of a gigantic mansion he rented for a year in Miami.

Sykes is an avid traveller and has explored 100 plus countries. His Instagram account displays all the exotic locations to inspire his 1,000,000 plus followers, all jealous of his ludicrous lifestyle. He could make a lot more money sitting in front of 3 monitors but prefers to spend it in luxury resorts such as Bali, Greece or the Maldives.

Below Deck

Over the years Tim has appeared on numerous reality tv shows to promote himself. He has featured twice on Below Deck as a guest, in season two and season five. The reactions on social media were mostly negative as the show was heavily edited to make Sykes look arrogant and egotistical. To be honest he didn’t help himself at times. Captain Lee hated Sykes taking back $5000 of tip money.

It was when Timothy Sykes took back some of the tip, 5K after he had already handed it to me and said he was taking some back because his 19yr old girlfreind didn't like her dinner after he ordered it for her. https://t.co/OvNq80CX7l

— Captain Lee (@capthlr) October 18, 2018

Is Timothy Sykes Married?

Timothy Sykes was once engaged to Bianca Alexia Wilson but they are no longer together. Tim has no time for relationships as he’s fully dedicated to educating students to the best of his ability.

Conclusion

Timothy Sykes is a talented day trader and entrepreneur who has built an online empire that has made him a multi-millionaire. Making millions every month means he can afford to live a lifestyle everyone dreams of.

Love him or hate him, Tim is an entertaining person that makes trading less boring. There are dozens of educators online that sell courses but very few have the capability to make finance interesting. I would guess 25% of his net worth was earned through day trading while the rest was accumulated through selling educational products.

Search for “free penny stocks alerts” on Google and you will come across a bunch of websites offering stock picks. The only problem is, the vast majority of them are stock promoters with hidden motivations, targeting beginner traders. This can be seen in movies such as Boiler Room except they promote companies via cold calling instead of email.

Despite how well-known pump and dump schemes are nowadays, there are still people falling for these scams hoping to get rich quick. The lure of making money without doing any hard work is too difficult to resist and the emails are so persuasive.

UltimateStockAlerts.com is a prime example of a penny stock promoter trying to attract suckers to join their email list. They also provide alerts via a text message app to maximize the number of investors who see their free alerts. Their website is nicely designed and looks trustworthy to the untrained eye.

On the homepage, they have fake testimonials from members who apparently banked profits from their newsletter. All the reviews have common names like Brian, Bill, and Francis. At least select more realistic names to make it sound believable. When you visit the site you can’t leave until you give away your email and you’re harassed by pop-ups. Once you sign up to their list, your inbox will be spammed on a daily basis with the “next 1000% gainer”.

List of websites with free penny stock alerts:

• Lionstockalerts.com
• Moneymorning.com
• Pennystocks.com
• Awesomepennystocks.com
• Ultimatestockalerts.com
• Pennystockdream.com
• Pennystockprophet.com
• Pennystockai.com
• Pennystockspy.com
• Bigstocks.io

Stock promotion is legal as long as the promoter discloses everything in their disclaimer. The problem is rarely anyone reads the disclaimer. Below the UltimateStockAlerts.com disclaimer reveals everything to protect themselves against any future lawsuits. They publicly admit once the campaign ends the company profiled will collapse.

The companies they advertise are absolutely worthless with barely any profits. They only want to artificially increase their stock price so insiders can get rich from dumping shares on new investors. In recent times the SEC has clamped down on such behaviour so these schemes aren’t as successful in 2020.

Generally, most free alert services advertise by buying ads from Google. They bid on specific search terms their target market is searching for. Paying for ads on Google is expensive and some sites pay $1-$4 per each click on an advertisement. Rising advertising costs lead to these sites using Instagram and Facebook to lure in new victims.

The top promoters use hot trends to catch the attention of subscribers. Right now bitcoin is hot, so they will advertise a small company they claim will profit the cryptocurrency mania. For e.g. PennyStockProphet.com was promoting Global Blockchain Technologies Corp (BLKCF). The company changed its name to include the term “Blockchain” only to attract new buyers. BLKCF is just an investment company that invests in cryptocurrencies, the share price went from from $0.01 and peaked at $11.30 in November 2017. Right now BLKCF is trading at six cents per share!

For those traders flash with cash and willing to pay for “premium” picks, there are various chat rooms that provide day and swing trade alerts. Chat rooms have experienced traders alerting others to popular penny stocks they are watching. They are a great place to learn but don’t become a sheep!

If you’re just copying trades from others you’re not learning how to trade. You need to become independent with the ability to generate your own ideas. The top services give detailed information explaining why a stock is in play and exit & entry points. Be careful though, not everyone in paid chat rooms is interested in helping others. There are scumbags who take advantage of beginners by front-running low volume alerts.

Paid Chat Rooms with best penny stock alerts:

• Tim Sykes Pennystocking Silver
• Investors Underground
• Humbled Trader
• Warrior Trading

Final Thoughts

The world of day trading penny stocks is rife with scam artists. The biggest danger to new investors are free stock tips, services almost always have a hidden agenda. Even if the tip is from a legit source, always do your research before risking your money. Day trading is a tough industry where 80% of people lose money. Invest in education and find a solid mentor to help avoid a rough start and shorten your learning curve.

While watching videos on YouTube is a fun way to learn about penny stocks others prefer to read books. While there are hundreds of books on trading traditional stocks, there aren’t many dedicated to teaching beginners how to profit from the dangerous world of penny stocks.

1. Penny Stocks for Dummies

Penny stock veteran and all-round nice guy, Peter Leeds teamed up with Wiley to launch the book. Originally the book was released in 2013, but a second edition was released in 2016 to keep up to date with the market. It provides a great insight for penny stock beginners with no previous knowledge of trading – advising investors on how to avoid scams, read financial reports and perform basic technical analysis.

The book talks about how to identify and analyze penny stocks to make long-term investments rather than day trading. He goes through multiple examples of small companies that have exploded in price, making returns over 100% for lucky early investors. The strategy of long-term investing isn’t for everyone though as it requires a lot of patience but is more suitable for the average person who has a full-time job.

2. The Complete Penny Stock Course

Authored by Jamil Ben Alluch, the book provides a complete breakdown on everything needed to start trading low-priced stocks. Perfect for inexperienced traders looking for a roadmap to go from newbie to intermediate day trader without spending hundreds of hours watching video lessons. J

Jamil basically takes Timothy Sykes’ lessons and breaks it down into a digestible form so people don’t have to rewatch hours of video lessons. The main criticism from customers was some of the pictures were hard to read and pages were falling out. The content is good, it’s just that the book quality is poor. But for $29, the book is a bargain compared to the amount of useful information available.

Jamil is a former challenge student of Sykes and is currently the Chief Technology Officer at StocksToTrade. This is probably why a whole chapter is dedicated to using the software.

3. An American Hedge Fund

The controversial Tim Sykes details his journey into day trading, revealing how he turned $12,000 into over $1.65 million. He writes about his unsuccessful attempt at running a hedge fund which teaches the importance of risk management and not getting caught up in your own success.

While his story is an entertaining read, it doesn’t provide much education in regards to learning how to trade and doesn’t discuss trading strategies in much depth. Sykes released ‘An American Hedge Fund’ for free online and can be downloaded as a PDF to your computer or kindle! Perfect reading material for aspiring stock traders with plenty of free time.

4. Invest in Penny Stocks: A Guide to Profitable Trading

Another stock trading book released by Peter Leeds in 2011. The book’s content is very similar to ‘Penny Stocks for Dummies’. The one thing I don’t like is how Leeds continually promotes his newsletter to readers throughout. Even if only 1% of readers end up paying for his subscription, Leeds will still make a hefty profit. While there’s nothing wrong with making money at least be more subtle about promoting your own services!

These are my top four picks, the rest of the other eBooks I found online were very low quality! If you have any recommendations please leave them in the comment section!