One purpose of my account with the no-fee brokerage Robinhood is to try out things I otherwise would never try.

Example: I never do story stocks. I am not a trader who puts much store by the fundamentals. Me and Jim Cramer would not get along. Warren Buffett and I would not be best of buds. This is the simple reality.

And yet, today, I have entered two stock positions on penny stocks based on a story told by Investopedia. 

The story, “Top 4 Oil and Gas Penny Stocks for 2017) is a tale of four oil patch stocks that have fallen on hard times in the fossil fuels price downturn: ENRJ, XCO, VNR and PTRC.

VNR on the Toronto Exchange and PTRC on the Pink Sheets aren’t traded by Robinhood. I opened positions on the other two symbols: ENRJ and XCO. Neither has a rating from Zacks Investment Research. There’s very little data available except for the price history, which shows that they were priced at $80 and $40, respectively, back in the day.

It’s a flyer, not a reasoned trade, except foe the story and the chart.

The last time I did something like this was in the depths of the Great Recession, when I bought into Fannie Mae for pennies, and ended up with several hundred percent in profit.

My motto for Private Trader is this: “Risk is good, as long as you know the odds.” I have no idea of the odds for these trades, so I am not being true to myself in placing them. But the amounts are small, so why not have some fun?

By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, March 2, 2017