Ah Panther, welcome to the stock market mate :) I was in your...

Ah Panther, welcome to the stock market mate I was in your position some years ago too.
You always hear about the big wins on penny dreadfuls but more often than not, you lose.(never hear about those losses on HC though) I did exactly as you said and switched to more reputable stocks. I'm a long way down the hole and a few stocks and I've been investing since 2007.
My biggest holdings these days are BHP, WDS, IPL, AFI, TLS. I wanted stocks that will pay me a dividend when I retire.
I still hold some spec stocks. (BMN, INR, IEC, NGE)

@pavlovas - Mate I used to think that a stock couldn't go much lower as well but it's not true. Not by a long shot. I held one stock that did about 4 or 5 consolidations etc. Eventually someone bought the shell of a company just so they had access to a list ASX stock. The stock changed direction from medical to mineral exploration then into I.T. Like with MGT, my initial $2.5K eventually became $0 and I was removed due to an unmarketable parcel.
Management are well paid to keep you & I pouring money into these stocks to pay their wages. If they can sell the story then their job is safe.

Regarding wages, the CEO of one of my stocks (it was oil exploration but got taken over by a fund manager to turn into his own ASX listed LIC (NGE), he pays himself around $500K/yr and NGE's market cap is $27Mil. Talk about overpaid.

On the technical side, MGT chart looks terrible!

Goodluck to all.