Leslie Howard is now a stock promoter

The website Pumpsanddumps.com has been around for awhile, chronicling various stock promotions (although they haven’t posted in a month). I have subscribed to its emails since last August. I have not always been impressed with the research, but it was a nice near-daily synopsis of current stock promotions. Last January, the site started carrying advertising from a new trading service, FirstMicrocapReport.com (by Leslie Howard) that looked to buy pumps prior to the stock promotions (similar to the service of PrePromotion Stocks). His service was mostly uninteresting to me; I generally try to avoid illiquid stocks. I was never a fan of Leslie’s alert service, although I remain subscribed because I follow almost anyone who moves penny stocks.

Leslie Howard has attracted the ire of convicted felon Michael Osborn (see George Sharp‘s negative website about him: http://michael-osborn.info/). Osborn, while not by any means a trustworthy guy, has alleged that George Sharp is Leslie Howard and also runs PumpsandDumps.com. [Update 26 October 2012: George Sharp appears to have won his defamation suit against Michael Osborn and AbuseofLaw.org. See the original complaint (pdf) and the notice about the court order on Abuseoflaw.org. It is fair to say that Osborn’s allegations have been completely discredited.]

However, who is behind Leslie Howard’s First Microcap Report is unimportant to me. The important thing is that Leslie Howard is now officially a stock promoter. Last Wednesday, Howard alerted HAIR and for the first time disclosed that he had been paid to promote the stock: “First Microcap Report has been compensated with an initial payment of $15,000 for the profiling of this company.” I guess “Uncle Leslie” decided that becoming a stock promoter was a lot easier than being a trading guru — and I have to agree. It is hard to gross $15,000 a month on a trading alert service.

Experienced penny stock traders know not to trust anyone. But it is always good to point that out for anyone new to the scene.


Disclaimer: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned and no relationship with any people mentioned. I trade pump and dumps and OTCBB / Pinksheets stocks. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

14 thoughts on “Leslie Howard is now a stock promoter”

  1. I suppose one has to wonder just how big this market will get.

    Is there a way you can put a financial number on this business, or a potential. I’m sure Tim has done some type of study that tells him what the market is for this type of business.

    As the old saying goes; one mans trash, is another mans treasure.

    Take care Michael – hope all is well.

    1. Stock promoters, if you include the people behind the big deals that put together companies solely for the purpose of arranging pump and dumps, probably gross around $1 billion to $2b per year, with net around $800m to $1.4b.

      This may sound high, but look at the volume of the biggest pumps like RAYS SEFE GWBU SNPK POTG NSRS over the last year.

  2. Michael, gratz on your AGRT trade. It’s not often that you would hold for that long, especially when the stock is up that much.

    I know you’ve made some big trades, is that one of your bigger ones? I am asking about percent gain, not the actual dollar amount.

    1. In terms of % gains, this was 33% which isn’t that great. I have had a number of 50% gainers, long and short and on some pumps I have had gains over 100%, but that is very, very rare.

      1. Maybe it looks so dramatic because it went from .02 to .28, for a 1300% percent gain. Truth is these small penny stocks still confuse me a little in terms of putting a monetary value on it when try to decide an amount of shares to trade.

        When you trade these do you gauge your position on the dollar amount, or the amount of shares? Or is it a mix of both.

        For me to think of owning 50,000 shares of something kinda blows my mind. Of course my mind is feeble so that’s not saying much.

        I’ve been doing decent in my Sure Trade account. It seems they’ve gotten better on the variety of shares they have to borrow. Overall I’m down in my account, but it’s from really stupid mistakes that stem from over trading because they have no PDT rule.

  3. Well, no one was in AGRT prior to .12 and few people got in below .18 on the first pump day — there was essentially no volume prior to that day. All that matters is the dollar value of the position — that is how much you can lose. I have no problem trading millions of shares on a sub-penny (although I rarely trade them).

    1. I bought it on the first big up day because the pump was just starting and the pumpers had built a following after moving their prior pump, ECIT, a ton. I sold the same day and will likely not buy AGRT again. I will look to short.

  4. Hi Michael,

    I jumped in on GWBU at $1.88 on Friday and it ended up at $1.82. I’m afraid that it will gap down prior to the opening on Monday. I’m kind of kicking myself for getting in at this point even though there are estimates that it will eventually get up to $2.50 before it sells off and dies. It was also mentioned that it might sell off to as little as $1.00 before it makes it’s final pump up. Just wondering what your thoughts are on it. As always, one never knows until the mkt opens and the truth is revealed. I guess I can get an idea by looking at the pre market activity.

    1. Tim — Considering that GWBU just broke out I doubt that it gaps down and I think it gaps up and spikes. I’ll sell into any big spike and if it is weak I’ll sell for a small loss (I’m long 3k shares from 1.83, so it is a small position).

  5. Hi Michael,

    Iam long 2k shares of GWBU at 1.71 and holding it from past 5 days.DO you think it will spike eventually.It has been dormant for a while.Since Iam a newbie,wondering whats going on with the silence in this APS play?

    Thanks for your help,
    Prasanth.

    1. If you don’t know what to do, get out (especially if you are long a pump). I still think GWBU will squeeze higher, but there is also a good chance that it never does and just drops. I wouldn’t want to be long GWBU.

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