A common theme among my stocks is potential. Either a stock has to be incredibly cheap versus the current numbers, priced as if the company is dead, or packed with potential. Above all any stock I'm going to consider must be tiny, illiquid, and low priced.
When I say low priced I mean cheap, and when I say cheap I mean in every sense of the word. A $100 stock may be cheap relative to intrinsic value but it is not absolutely cheap. Even a $20 stock is not absolutely cheap so it would take something real special to get me to venture into that realm. Anything over a few dollars starts making me uncomfortable and my preference is really closer to a nickel. I'm looking for maximum stock price movement and that comes from four things: supply, demand, perception, and resistance.