I went $2M to $10M in 14 days and am now ~$16 after 17 days. A few things I would advise for the dedicated small port owner are-
1) Prepare to stay up late. While I don't do much reset trading on my main port, it is essential to a new port if the owner wishes to get in the mix (ie. make money) quickly. Unfortunatly, this doesn't just mean staying up until reset (3am for me), but actually a couple of hours longer. In my brief YTD experience, 1 or 2 gems show up within the first hour of reset (12am Pacific), 1 or 2 show up about 3 hours later, and your best one may not show up until >6 hours from reset. This is so important for small pots because they don't have the money to play most of the quick movement (for example, many small ports can't buy max of the most recent $40 moviestock's quick movement as it would cost them $4M+). In an example from today, I went to bed well before the huge movement on the latest penny stock even started. Due to the fact that the Hot Properties list is based on $ gain/loss and not % gain/loss, some of those super cheap big movers won't show up on the list when theyv'e only gained $1 even though that $1 represents a 1000% increase.
Side note- I've recently learned that is a LOT harder to try to pull those late hours in my 30s than it was in my 20s since I'm not hanging out at a bar the whole time. haha
2) There is a lot of great advice available concerning StarBonds and their adjusts readliy available here on the boards and at many other sites I'll plug the excellent www.hsxdude.com right here). While those StarBonds are absolutely your bread and butter on a small port due to the risk-free gains, a small port looking to move fast should NOT make these investments too early. You may make a little more by putting all of your money in the StarBonds on Tuesday or Wednesday when the "news" first breaks, but then you'd have that money sitting in those investments all week when you could be making far more money on a day to day basis in the meantime. I like to invest in the sure-fire StarBonds no earlier than Saturday so that I can get as much use out of my liquid money before tying it up in something that won't profit me until Tuesday.
3) Obviously, breaking news is a big thing. Last week Paul Greengrass signed on for a certain penny stock that went from $.01 to $10 in that single day. This was an example of a penny stock explosion that actually had hardline news to back up it's movement. In my opinion, these are the gold standard for investments. Don't fret about investing halfway through the day in one of these MovieStocks if you think the hot news will sustain the investment. If there is more than just day trading driving the price of a stock, then even investing when it's halfway up the mountain aint a bad thing!
4) Join a league or two. There are several leagues set up specifically to help new folks with small ports and if you're lucky, you'll join one that has active participation from the members. Those members will often have much more specific advice that that of which you would find on the main boards. Also, even if you don't want advice, certain leagues will help spur on your money making simply by providing solid cometition.
5) For small ports, "Gut Check" has a whole different set of perameters. When you see folks talk about it on the boards they are usually talking about weekend openers. With a small port, you will be doing Gut Checks every single day. Figure out what you are comfortable with but decide, p ersonally, when you will move on from a stock on the day to day basis. Do you keep a stock after you refresh and it's suddenly dropped $.50? Do you sell a stock that you think maxed when it's gained you $800k in a day? These are the decisions that make this game YOUR game. Nobody can tell you where you stand on these decisions and you will be able to own your right decisions and drink away your wrong ones. That's my favorite part.
I doubt many will see this because I hid it kinda deep in a thread, but these are the main things that I have learned in my first 3 weeks of small port playing since 2000.