2 Stocks Under $5 to Buy, 2 to Sell

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Touting low-priced stocks -- it has become a rather lucrative industry. Sadly, very few people who cover the segment do credible and responsible jobs.

Good folks such as TheStreet's David Peltier remain few and far between. Most of the low-priced guys resemble sharks like those 1-900 line college and pro football gambling gurus who used to dominate weekend television during fall and winter. Cats like Jack Price and "The Source" Stu Feiner.

More often than not, purveyors of low-priced stocks scream and yell maniacal nonsense. If you follow the stock market at all, you've likely come across the best example of what's wrong with low-priced stocks and all that they entail: Sirius XM (SIRI) permabulls.

These people have taken on what amounts to a second job not only promoting SIRI, but defending it against any and all bearish or even neutral encroachments. Before you allow yourself to fall for their passionate pleas to "buy on the dips" and "slap the ask," consider why they expend so much energy trying to convince the world that SIRI is a screaming buy.

It could just be that they bought SIRI when it wasn't a low-priced stock. But, now it is. They're under water so they pump the living heck out of the dog with all their might. Do you really think if they bought the stock when it cost a dime, they would spend their time trying to convince the world to buy it now?

And what's worse, for as far as the eye can see, SIRI has been little more than a trader's stock and dead money to long-term investors. It's embroiled in a battle of egos over control of the company. CEO Mel Karmazin says he demands a "premium" from anybody who wants to take Sirius XM out, including the most likely aggressor, Liberty Media (LMCA).

Worse yet, Mel has about as much vision as your grandmother who still uses a rotary phone and holds up grocery store lines by writing checks. He's keen to do a dividend because, incredibly, he cannot find anything else to spend his company's cash on.

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