Pharma’s Green Shoots
by Phil - September 15th, 2009 6:43 am
Courtesy of Pharmboy
Hello all! Not a bad month since our first plays in the Pharma and Biotech space. Phil summed up last week the positions and the nice profits on our picks, and I think it is time for a few more companies to focus on for our portfolios (e.g., 100K), after all, it’s about tilling the soil and making some money on our Pharm….
First, the healthcare debate is going to rage on after the holiday weekend, and I am expecting this sector to take some lumps with our good ride up. I would expect the economies of scale to weigh in, as even though price may be lower, picking up more coverage (patients) is what it is all about. Those dependent upon high priced biologics may be the ones that take the biggest hit, as the costs are quite different than popping a pill every day for a few $$$. Just things to ponder and we will react as developments take shape on the horizon.
Mid-summer and early fall are the times for the biotech and pharma segments to provide the greatest returns. I cannot decide if it is the cyclical nature or if more clinical data are being released during this time. Looking at XBI and XPH over a five year period, the biotech fund (XBI) has done a bit better on overall return, but the two charts follow the same overall pattern. Thus, we are entering the final stretch for this sector, and should be prepared for a slight pullback during the holidays.
5 yr XBI and XPH Chart Here >>
Now, on to the good stuff….
Shire PLC (SPHGY), founded in 1986, aims to be a market leader in meeting the needs of specialist physicians in targeted segments. Its core therapeutic focus areas are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; within central nervous system, CNS) and increasingly biopharmaceuticals that address specific genetic disorders. Consistent with this strategy, Shire has been made a number of important acquisitions, including the 2007 purchase of New River, the developer of Vyvanse (the successor for Adderall XR ADHD treatment; and a series of biopharmaceutical acquisitions, following the Transkaryotic Therapies entry acquisition in 2005. In 2008, Shire acquired German biotech company Jerini, which brought along Firazyr, a treatment for hereditary angioedema.
Recently, Shire has sent its treatment for Gaucher disease, an alternative to the Genzyme (GENZ) drug Cerezyme, to the FDA for approval.
The Company focuses its drug research and development on the relatively common mental abnormality Attention…
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Elements of Deflation, Part 2
by ilene - September 13th, 2009 5:00 am
Elements of Deflation, Part 2
Courtesy of John Mauldin, Thoughts from the Frontline
[Click here for Elements of Deflation, Part 1]
Elements of Deflation, Part 2
The Velocity Factor
Y=MV
Sir, I Have Not Yet Begun to Print
There Are No Good Choices
Washington DC, San Diego, and New Orleans, etc.
Just as water is formed by the basic elements hydrogen and oxygen, deflation has its own fundamental components. Last week we started exploring those elements, and this week we continue. I feel that the most fundamental of decisions we face in building investment portfolios is correctly deciding whether we are faced with
The problem is that there is not an easy answer. In fact, the answer is that it could be both. Today I got another letter from Peter Schiff, who seems to be ubiquitous. He says the rise in gold is because of rising inflation expectations among investors. Gold is predicting inflation. Maybe, but the correlation between gold and inflation for the last 25-plus years has been zero. I rather think that gold is rising in terms of value against most major fiat (paper) currencies because it is seen as a neutral currency. The Fed and the Obama administration seem to be pursuing policies that are dollar-negative, and they give no hint of letting up. The rise in gold above $1,000 does not really tell us anything about the future of inflation.
In fact, it is my belief that if the Fed were to withdraw from the scene of economic battle, the forces of deflation would be felt in short order. The answer to the question "Will we have inflation in our future?" is "You better hope so!"
I wrote in 2003, when Greenspan was holding down rates too long in order to spur the economy, that the best outcome or endgame over the course of the full cycle would be stagflation. I still think that is the most likely scenario. The Fed will fight deflation and knows how to do that. They also know what to do when inflation becomes too high. But there is a cost.
It is not a matter of pain or no pain; it…
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The Elements of Deflation
by ilene - September 5th, 2009 12:20 pm
The Elements of Deflation
Courtesy of John Mauldin at Thoughts From The Frontline
The Elements of Deflation
The Failure of Economics
The Super Trend Puzzle
Final Demand and Income
Unemployment Was NOT a Green Shoot
As every school child knows, water is formed by the two elements of hydrogen and oxygen in a very simple formula we all know as H2O. Today we start a series that starts with the question, What are the elements that comprise deflation? Far from being simple, the "equation" for deflation is as complex as that of DNA. And sadly, while the genome project has helped us with great insights into how DNA works, economic analysis is still back in the 1950s when it comes to decoding deflation. Notwithstanding the paucity of understanding we can glean from the dismal science, in this week’s letter we will start thinking about the most fundamentally important question of the day: is inflation, or deflation, in our future?
But quickly, I want to thank the many people who wrote very kind words about last week’s letter. Many thought it was one of the better letters I have done in a long time. If you did not read it, you can read it here. And of course, you can go there and sign up to get this letter sent to you each week for free. Why not become of my 1 million (plus and growing) closest friends?
The Failure of Economics
Among the economists and writers I regularly read, there are some who, if they agree with me, I go back and check my assumptions - I must have been wrong. Paul Krugman is one of those thinkers. I admit to his brilliance, but his left-leaning philosophy does not particularly square with mine, and I find that most of the time I disagree.
That being said, I strongly encourage you to read his essay in the New York Times Magazine, which comes out this weekend. It is worth the high price of the Times to read it, if you can’t get it online. It is a very hard critique and analysis of the failure of current macro and financial economic thought, which didn’t even come close to predicting the current financial malaise. Indeed, as he points out, most schools of thought said the state we are in could not happen. You can read at the essay if you are a member, or register for free if…
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Meet Optiver, High Frequency Trading Friend in Oil
by ilene - September 4th, 2009 4:54 pm
Meet Optiver, High Frequency Trading Friend in Oil
Courtesy of Trader Mark at Fund My Mutual Fund
I’d like to introduce you to a friend in the oil market, named Optiver. This is one of countless HAL9000 high frequency firms who simply make a market and "provide liquidity". The New York Times has a nice piece on this little firm, with the cute name.
- Traders in the Chicago office of Optiver openly talked among themselves of “whacking” and “bullying up” the price of oil. But when called to account by officials of the New York Mercantile Exchange, they described their actions as just “providing liquidity.”
Errr…. Remember, if you ask any questions about the market nowadays, you have an avalanche of people from inside the game telling you all they do is provide liquidity. Without them, we’d be unable to have a functioning market. Countless posts I (and others) put up on sites like Seeking Alpha that even dare to ask about any potential loopholes that some firms in the HAL9000 league could exploit are met with an army of "they just provide liquidity" comments. 
Almost as if those retorts are organized. Or maybe it’s just the dogma that pervades so much of group think nowadays.
Now of course some of these firms are truly only providing a market making business - skimming off the top and in return "providing liquidity" (in good times at least) [Meet Getco, High Frequency Trading King]. But if one firm like Optiver can manipulate the oil market (allegedly) just imagine what some of the powerful financial elite could do with all the money they have (much of it now backstopped by the Federal Reserve) in all the other markets. Not that they’d ever take advantage of it to post a 97% winning percentage. [Aug 5, 2009: Goldman Sachs Q2 Winning Percentage: 97%] Or more likely (ahem) Optiver was the only bad apple in the bunch…
Wait a second, Larry Summers once worked for a HAL9000 firm DE Shaw learning the tricks of the trade [Apr 6, 2009: Larry Summers - No Conflict of Interest; He Pinkie Swears] … hmm… and now he has his hands on the PPT which is like the HAL9000 of our dreams… [May 27, 2009: Daniel Shaffer Notices the "Invisible Hand" aka PPT] Nah, no connection to strange market behavior - I am sure.
As I said in many pieces, I am sure I don’t even know about 80% of the stuff…
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An Uncomfortable Choice
by ilene - August 29th, 2009 7:50 pm
An Uncomfortable Choice
Courtesy of John Mauldin at Thoughts From The Frontline
An Uncomfortable Choice
What Were We Thinking?
Frugality is the New Normal
And Then We Face the Real Problem
The Teenagers Are in Control
Choose Wisely
We have arrived at this particular economic moment in time by the choices we have made, which now leave us with choices in our future that will be neither easy, convenient, nor comfortable. Sometimes there are just no good choices, only less-bad ones. In this week’s letter we look at what some of those choices might be, and ponder their possible consequences. Are we headed for a double-dip recession? Read on.
An Uncomfortable Choice
As our family grew, we limited the choices our seven kids could make; but as they grew into teenagers, they were given more leeway. Not all of their choices were good. How many times did Dad say, "What were you thinking?" and get a mute reply or a mumbled "I don’t know."
Yet how else do you teach them that bad choices have bad consequences? You can lecture, you can be a role model; but in the end you have to let them make their own choices. And a lot of them make a lot of bad choices. After having raised six, with one more teenage son at home, I have come to the conclusion that you just breathe a sigh of relief if they grow up and have avoided fatal, life-altering choices. I am lucky. So far. Knock on a lot of wood.
I have watched good kids from good families make bad choices, and kids with no seeming chance make good choices. But one thing I have observed. Very few teenagers make the hard choice without some outside encouragement or help in understanding the known consequences, from some source. They nearly always opt for the choice that involves the most fun and/or the least immediate pain, and then learn later that they now have to make yet another choice as a consequence of the original one. And thus they grow up. So quickly.
But it’s not just teenagers. I am completely capable of making very bad choices as I approach the end of my sixth decade of human experiences and observations. In fact, I have made some rather distressing choices over time. Even in areas where I think I have some expertise I can make appallingly bad choices. Or maybe particularly in…
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Growth in “Potential GDP” Shows Limited Potential
by ilene - August 22nd, 2009 1:35 pm
Introduction to John Hussman’s weekly market comment, courtesy of Tom Burger:
"Very interesting Hussman post this week. He is trying to corroborate his valuation model’s projection of relatively low ten year returns by using the U.S. Department of Commerce estimate of decade-ahead GDP. This estimate, according to Hussman, depends not on current economic conditions but on economic fundamentals — such as demographics, capital stock measures, and so forth.
"He also points out some rather hard to ignore valuation variances with past recession end points — current stock yields and price to revenue ratios."
- Tom Burger at Applying the Lessons of Free Market Economics
Growth in "Potential GDP" Shows Limited Potential
Courtesy of John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved and actively enforced.
Reprint Policy
Historically, two factors have made important contributions to stock market returns in the years following U.S. recessions. One of these that we review frequently is valuation. Very simply, depressed valuations have historically been predictably followed by above-average total returns over the following 7-10 year period (though not necessarily over very short periods of time), while elevated valuations have been predictably followed by below-average total returns.
Thus, when we look at the dividend yield of the S&P 500 at the end of U.S. recessions since 1940, we find that the average yield has been about 4.25% (the yield at the market’s low was invariably even higher). Presently, the dividend yield on the S&P 500 is about half that, at 2.14%, placing the S&P 500 price/dividend ratio at about double the level that is normally seen at the end of U.S. recessions (even presuming the recession is in fact ending, of which I remain doubtful). At the March low, the yield on the S&P 500 didn’t even crack 3.65%. Similarly, the price-to-revenue ratio on the S&P 500 at the end of recessions has been about 40% lower than it is today, and has been lower still at the actual bear market trough. The same is true of valuations in relation to normalized earnings, even though the market looked reasonably cheap in March based on the ratio of the S&P 500 to 2007 peak earnings (which were driven by profit margins about 50% above the historical norm).
Stocks are currently overvalued, which – if the recession is indeed over – makes the present situation an outlier. Unfortunately, since valuations and subsequent returns go hand in hand, the likelihood is that the probable returns over the coming…
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The Statistical Recovery, Part Two
by ilene - August 15th, 2009 1:12 pm
The Statistical Recovery, Part Two
Courtesy of John Mauldin
The Statistical Recovery, Part Two
A Recovery Statisticians Can Love
A Few Thoughts on the Housing Market
Some Thoughts from Maine
A few weeks ago I first used the term “statistical recovery” to describe the nature of today’s economic environment. Today we are going to further explore that concept, as it is important to have a real understanding of what is happening. This coming “recovery” is not going to feel like a typical one, and those expecting a “V”-shaped recovery are simply making projections from previous economic recoveries, which, based on the fundamentals, are not warranted. And of course, a few thoughts coming back from Maine are in order. There is a lot to cover, and this may take more than one letter.
But first, let me note to subscribers to Conversations with John Mauldin that we have posted my Conversation with George Friedman of Stratfor and will soon post a very interesting Conversation I had with John Burns (of John Burns Real Estate Consulting) and Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac. These may be the two most knowledgeable people on the housing market in the country. There is a lot of poorly informed speculation about the housing market, and I think this Conversation will help clear away a lot of the fog. PLUS, they both agreed to allow me to post their eye-opening PowerPoint stacks to Conversation subscribers (normally only available to their clients), so you get a very special bonus. And finally, David Galland of Casey Research is allowing me to post a most thought-provoking interview he did with Neil Howe. This is one of the best things I have run across in a long time. I do work on giving my Conversations subscribers good value.
George and I are going to be doing a regular quarterly Conversation called Geopolitical Conversations with John Mauldin and George Friedman. We believe that these new Conversations will help you better understand not only the global political landscape but also how it affects the financial umbrella that we are under. In this first Conversation, we talked about the “exogenous” risks to the markets (those from outside the markets themselves) posed by the geopolitical world.
We will offer this service, which will be priced separately, at some point in the near future. Now, here is the important part: all current subscribers and anyone who subscribes now will receive these Geopolitical Conversations free, as a thank you. (Current…
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$5,000 Portfolio Update - Week 6 - $5,614
by Phil - August 15th, 2009 4:04 am
Well we’re back to cash…
After getting off to a great start, up 12% in the first 3 weeks, we were lucky this week to get back to 12% after having a run of bad luck (or bad skill actually, as we went bearish too early and got punished for it). The goal of the $5,000 portfolio is to play around the volatility of earnings and make no mistake, it’s a high-risk way to trade $5,000 and is meant to be a small portion of a large portfolio - not something you would want to do with your only $5,000. Of course the usual disclaimer is, this is a virtual portfolio, don’t try this at home, trading is dangerous, always consult a professional financial adviser, etc, etc. The idea is to practice different option strategies and we’re learning from our successes and failures - I hope!
Our first play 5 plays that we closed were on AA, DIA, SGR, MCD, and DELL, which had a total gain of $629 in our first 6 days. For details on those trades, go to the Day 6 post. We have been posting all of the moves for the $5KP in member chat, of course, but also on Seeking Alpha’s Stock Talk, where we have discovered the added bonus that, like Twitter, you do not have to refresh the page to see new comments! If you want to follow these trades, just click on "Follow" under my picture and you will automatically see any comments made there. A full review of Stock Talk commentary regarding the $5KP is available here and please make sure you click "Follow" on my picture so that you will be able to track further updates.
We closed positions on WFC and AXP, up $258 in our last review on July 25th and we have since closed our YUM position with a $256 loss on the 28th, which was a shame as we gave up on 8 Aug $35 calls at .45 ($360) and they flew up to $2 ($1,600) just a week later. Unfortunately, in a small portfolio, you don’t have the luxury of riding out your losses and, at the time, we felt lucky to escape this underperfomer with a relatively small loss.
A VNO put spread we couldn’t fill the week of the 21st, was an easy fill the next week and 3 Sept $50 puts were in at $3.70 ($1,110) and 3 Aug $50 puts were sold for $2.90 ($870). The premise of this play is a tough one to hold on through as we expected VNO (and all commercial realty) to…
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Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
by ilene - August 8th, 2009 12:31 pm
"Science advances one funeral at a time." Max Planck
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Courtesy of John Mauldin
In this issue:
Six impossible things before breakfast, or how EMH has damaged our industry
The Dead Parrot of Finance
The Queen of Hearts and impossible beliefs
Slaves of some defunct economist
Prima facie case against EMH — Forever blowing bubbles
The EMH ‘Nuclear Bomb’
The Efficient Market Hypothesis, according to Shiller, is one of the most remarkable errors in the history of economic thought. EMH should be consigned to the dustbin of history. We need to stop teaching it, and brainwashing the innocent. Rob Arnott tells a lovely story of a speech he was giving to some 200 finance professors. He asked how many of them taught EMH - pretty much everyone’s hand was up. Then he asked how many of them believed it. Only two hands stayed up!
And we wonder why funds and banks, full of the best and brightest, have made such a mess of things. Part of the reason is that we have taught economic nonsense to two generations of students. They have come to rely upon models based on assumptions that are absurd on their face. And then they are shocked when the markets deliver them a "hundred-year flood" every 4 years. The models say this should not happen. But do they abandon their models? No, they use them to convince regulators that things should not be changed all that much. And who can argue with a model that was the basis for a Nobel Prize?
I am again out of town this week, but I have been saving a speech done by my friend James Montier of Société Générale in London on the problems with the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EFM). While parts of it are wonkish, there are also parts that are quite funny (at least to an economist).
Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas usually have bad consequences. The current maelstrom from which we are emerging (finally, if in fits and starts) has many culprits. A lot of bad ideas and poor management that came together to create the perfect storm. Today, we look at some of the ideas that are part of the problem but are too often glossed over because they are "academic" and not of the real world. However, gentle reader, academic ideas that are taught and accepted as gospel by 99% of the professors have real-world consequences. Where does your money manager stand…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(