10. Palladon Ventures (PLL) may be the single best example of buying shares for no other reason than they are cheap during tax-selling season. I wrote about Palladon in 2005. The shares were selling for about $.43 a share. They rocketed up to $1.28 in anticipation of the company going into iron production quickly. Palladon owns half of one of the most significant strategic iron mines in the western USA.

I'd like to word this gracefully; the best I can say is that the prior management of the company deceived me and everyone else about the status of the project for many months. I was told in May of 2005 that it would be shipping ore in July of 2005. I couldn't for a moment figure out how. They didn't have any production facilities but that's what I was told. Now, three years later, the same deceptive manager is still a director. Only God knows why, it's beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals. I talk to the company every six months and for three years now all I am told is that they are on the verge of doing something that will get the mine into production. Who knows? Maybe someday lightning will strike and it will happen. It's a great deposit and iron keeps going up. But at this time of the year, you should ignore deceptive management, you should ignore major projects being shuttered, you should ignore everything but price. I casually follow Palladon. On Friday I saw it hit $.14, down from a yearly high of $.46 and I put in a stink bid for 100,000 shares. And I got it. I put in another order for 100,000 shares at $.13 and got it. By the end of the day - Palladon closed at $.19 - I was up 40%. In one day. Don't buy the shares at $.19. But if they come down to a new low, load up the truck. The stock is either going to go to $2 or to $.02 and I can't really predict which. But if one in five investments made at $.135 goes to $2, you are still ahead even if all the rest go to zero.