Low Price Doesn't Mean Low Interest
By Jerry Knight
Monday, November 18, 2002; Page E01
washingtonpost.com
Washington investors tend to be blue-chip stock buyers, conservative folks who favor big names like Fannie Mae, Marriott Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
But almost every day an oddball little company called Xybernaut Corp. has more of its shares traded than any of those no-introduction-needed names.
Often, in fact, daily trading volume in the Fairfax maker of "wearable computers" exceeds the combined turnover in Fannie Mae, Marriott and Lockheed Martin.
Xybernaut trading volume averaged more than 10 million shares a day last week and topped 21 million shares on Nov. 7.
All that churning never adds up to much money because Xybernaut stock has been trading at less than $1 a share for months and lately has been bouncing between a quarter and six bits.
Though "penny stock" remains Wall Street's worst pejorative, low-priced stocks are alluring to many people. The attraction of cheap stocks is not only the price and the volatility that yields big gains on a percentage basis, but also the story. Without a story, nobody will pay any attention, let alone any money for a stock, no matter how cheap.
Here are the latest chapters in the stories of four low-priced stocks, Spherix Inc., XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., TeleCommunications Systems Inc. and Xybernaut, listed with their trading symbols. |
