is the quantity of shares that have been sold short by those who believe that the stock will go down. You can find a stock’s short interest here:

The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you've got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you've got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you've got a terrible business.

If your order is not executed in the next 15 minutes, cancel your order and walk away.

In addition, penny stocks are inherently more volatile than higher-priced stocks. Think of it this way: if a $100 stock moves $1, that is a 1% move. If a $5 stock moves $1, that is a 20% move. Many new traders underestimate the kind of emotional and financial damage that this kind of volatility can cause.

As we mentioned before, to make money in trading or investing, you need to skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has already been.

Find a stock that is gapping up on good news (like a better than expected earnings report).

Reaction to the news is always more important than the news itself.

Never buy a stock based on an analyst upgrade, or sell a stock based on an analyst downgrade.

“Short % of Float.” This is simply the number of shares that have been sold short, divided by the float (which we defined above). Some hated stocks will have a short interest as a percentage of float that is anywhere from 10-50%.