Investing in biotech stocks - My experience so far

csgohan4

Cus said:

Not good news today...

Cus said:

Not good news today...

highlights the volatility of biotech companies in clinical trial products. EVFM is the other one but worse, relying on one product and poor management 

But as they say, buy on the dip and hold long and strong

Shame I have no more ISA allowance or I would have put some coin into ARWR now, as they are in free fall.

BrockStoker

csgohan4 said:

Cus said:

Not good news today...

Cus said:

Not good news today...

highlights the volatility of biotech companies in clinical trial products. EVFM is the other one but worse, relying on one product and poor management 

But as they say, buy on the dip and hold long and strong

Shame I have no more ISA allowance or I would have put some coin into ARWR now, as they are in free fall.

Well I'm not sure about "free fall", but it's certainly a significant hit to the SP, and a great opportunity for those who have some spare cash.

My portfolios are down around £28K since last night - however some of the big holders on the ARWR YHMB will be down 100's of thousands or perhaps millions in some cases!

csgohan4

BrockStoker said:

csgohan4 said:

Cus said:

Not good news today...

Cus said:

Not good news today...

highlights the volatility of biotech companies in clinical trial products. EVFM is the other one but worse, relying on one product and poor management 

But as they say, buy on the dip and hold long and strong

Shame I have no more ISA allowance or I would have put some coin into ARWR now, as they are in free fall.

Well I'm not sure about "free fall", but it's certainly a significant hit to the SP, and a great opportunity for those who have some spare cash.

My portfolios are down around £28K since last night - however some of the big holders on the ARWR YHMB will be down 100's of thousands or perhaps millions in some cases!

I sincerely hope it won't be like the EVFM graph, but I wouldn't be surprised as investors move like herd mentality. They wait to see what others do and jump the cliff once one starts. 

moneyfoolish

I think you should all keep away from any shares I buy.

The shares I bought around 3 months ago are the first I've bought since the last Technology crash about 20 years ago when my porfolio was almost completely tech shares which I had switched into about a month before the crash. Luckily, I sold everything with only a very small loss but vowed never to touch the stockmarket again.

I never have until 3 months ago when I got fed up with interst rates of around 0.5% and decided to convert one of my fixed term cash ISAs which ending into an S&S ISA. I decided I could take a risk with that money so went for Biotech shares.

I bought 4 being Arrowhead, Amyris and Evofem from the USA and Avacta from the UK although only a small amount in EVFM.

Sold EVFM at a huge loss and am now down 15% on AMRS, 25% on ARWR and 28% on AVCT so will just to hope that I live long enough to see some recovery as it's too late to sell!

Currently down about £6,000 on my £20,000 ISA of 3 months ago!

csgohan4

moneyfoolish said:

I think you should all keep away from any shares I buy.

The shares I bought around 3 months ago are the first I've bought since the last Technology crash about 20 years ago when my porfolio was almost completely tech shares which I had switched into about a month before the crash. Luckily, I sold everything with only a very small loss but vowed never to touch the stockmarket again.

I never have until 3 months ago when I got fed up with interst rates of around 0.5% and decided to convert one of my fixed term cash ISAs which ending into an S&S ISA. I decided I could take a risk with that money so went for Biotech shares.

I bought 4 being Arrowhead, Amyris and Evofem from the USA and Avacta from the UK although only a small amount in EVFM.

Sold EVFM at a huge loss and am now down 15% on AMRS, 25% on ARWR and 28% on AVCT so will just to hope that I live long enough to see some recovery as it's too late to sell!

Currently down about £6,000 on my £20,000 ISA of 3 months ago!

I feel your pain, I was down on EVFM at 55% and sold on a small fun fun, which subsequently invested in SHOE and now up 20%

Rest of my shares are recovery ones,still in the green, but the recent battering of the airline stocks has given some anxiety. 

Moe_The_Bartender

moneyfoolish said:

I think you should all keep away from any shares I buy.

The shares I bought around 3 months ago are the first I've bought since the last Technology crash about 20 years ago when my porfolio was almost completely tech shares which I had switched into about a month before the crash. Luckily, I sold everything with only a very small loss but vowed never to touch the stockmarket again.

I never have until 3 months ago when I got fed up with interst rates of around 0.5% and decided to convert one of my fixed term cash ISAs which ending into an S&S ISA. I decided I could take a risk with that money so went for Biotech shares.

I bought 4 being Arrowhead, Amyris and Evofem from the USA and Avacta from the UK although only a small amount in EVFM.

Sold EVFM at a huge loss and am now down 15% on AMRS, 25% on ARWR and 28% on AVCT so will just to hope that I live long enough to see some recovery as it's too late to sell!

Currently down about £6,000 on my £20,000 ISA of 3 months ago!

Can I just ask what persuaded you to buy these dogs? 

moneyfoolish

Moe_The_Bartender said:

moneyfoolish said:

I think you should all keep away from any shares I buy.

The shares I bought around 3 months ago are the first I've bought since the last Technology crash about 20 years ago when my porfolio was almost completely tech shares which I had switched into about a month before the crash. Luckily, I sold everything with only a very small loss but vowed never to touch the stockmarket again.

I never have until 3 months ago when I got fed up with interst rates of around 0.5% and decided to convert one of my fixed term cash ISAs which ending into an S&S ISA. I decided I could take a risk with that money so went for Biotech shares.

I bought 4 being Arrowhead, Amyris and Evofem from the USA and Avacta from the UK although only a small amount in EVFM.

Sold EVFM at a huge loss and am now down 15% on AMRS, 25% on ARWR and 28% on AVCT so will just to hope that I live long enough to see some recovery as it's too late to sell!

Currently down about £6,000 on my £20,000 ISA of 3 months ago!

Can I just ask what persuaded you to buy these dogs? 

Other than EVFM which was small gamble, I don't believe these companies are dogs. IMO, the other 3 all have a lot of potential but I bought when the biotech market was at a peak. Of course, all biotech companies are hugely risky but it still takes a lot of skill to pick 4 which all fall at the same time! I would expect to do better than that if I picked 4 out while blindfolded!!

I'm not sure how you can describe Arrowhead as a dog if you look at its pipeline with cures for 4 diseases into Phase 2, another 2 at the end of Phase 1 and another 8 at earlier stages plus several of them in partnership with large companies i.e. Janssen, Amgen and Takeda.

BrockStoker

Really not worried about this at all. Big market over reaction. RNAi is tough to do, so really quite amazing that Arrowhead have gotten where they are with so few setbacks previously (I'm sure there have been plenty behind the scenes along the way on this scale, but they don't mean anything), and this in no way affects everything else that we already have in the pipeline.

Still awaiting more good data, and possible BTD designation from the FDA, any of which pop us back to where we were (or perhaps higher) soon. I'd be surprised if there was much more downside from this. Management are much better than EVFM, so I don't see why we should expect that kind of performance. Once again keeping my fingers crossed that one of my other stocks pops significantly, so I can sell and by more ARWR, but it's probably wishful thinking.

BrockStoker

moneyfoolish said:

I'm not sure how you can describe Arrowhead as a dog if you look at its pipeline with cures for 4 diseases into Phase 2, another 2 at the end of Phase 1 and another 8 at earlier stages plus several of them in partnership with large companies i.e. Janssen, Amgen and Takeda.

Definitely no dog from a performance point of view, or any other for that matter. A few up n downs are par for the course, with any company just starting out on a long journey, not just biotechs, although they are naturally more volatile - I say it's not a bad thing to get a chance to buy @ a near 25% discount, if you can, and will be holding for at least a few years, which is where the real money is anyway!

Michael121

This arrowhead what do you think revenues would be if phase 3 trials were successful?