You're partially right. American Airlines filed for bankruptcy a year ago. In more than 90 per cent of the cases when a company files for Chapter 11, common share holders are 'toast'. They won't get anything because the bankruptcy court system which acts as a collecting agent for the debtors won't give the shareholders a dime unless all of the prior lenders are paid in full or there is some kind of a compromise between different parties and it varies on who get how much. American Airlines was unique that way. There are many that filed for bankruptcy in the last 5 years and common stock holders got nothing. Some like Tronox, WAMU were lucky but even then, shareholders received tiny shares of the newly reorganized company.

What I'm looking at is the business and not the stock price. Small enterprises that go public can't afford to pay high cost to be up listed in Nasdaq and NYSE. There are examples like AMZG and LBMH - which were recently up listed to NYSE from OTC. At the beginning of the year, they were both selling for around 50 cents at the OTC. In 2009, AMZG was selling for less the 3 cents. Today it is selling for 2.51 per share...2 different industry of oil and healthcare but the point is..when they were able to show that their business model was good and they were selling products/services that were needed by their customers, it was best for the management to up list and get more exposure. Many of the institutional investors do not invest in OTC stocks for the same reason that they find that OTC companies may be fraud. 

Don't look at stock or stock price but rather if the company has been profitable or not and if it is profitable, will it be able to sustain its growth. You buy a gas station in the hope that you'll make even more profit than the current owner and so you pay the price negotiated. 

You won't find too many OTC stocks that are doing well but you certainly will find some bargain if you keep looking everyday. But that does not mean that OTC is the only place to look for bargains. You invest in companies where you feel that they are (management) going to do great things for their shareholders (you and I). Stock market is not a slot machine. You have to pick up the right company..read annual and quarterly reports..listen to the conference call when the earning results are out and decide whether you want in/out/add/subtract. 

All is just my opinion and I can always be wrong.