What Is a Penny Stock

In the United States of America, a penny stock, also known as a micro cap equity, refers to a share in a company which trades for less than $5.00. While this is the official definition, and is used by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, generally every full service or discount broker, and the vast majority of analysts and institutional investors, there are informal (but paradoxically less inclusive) criteria applied by the general public and most retail investors. In other countries the term may be used differently, without reference to US institutions.

As well, there are many limitations with the alternative definitions, as they often contradict themselves. For example, there are many companies trading for only a few cents with market capitalizations of hundreds of millions of dollars, or corporations trading on the Pink Sheets but having share prices of $50 or more.