Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
OT: north40000 - thanks for your reply on Type I diabetes.
I need to hear more about people like you to keep me not only motivated, but positive that my disciplined efforts will pay off over the longterm.
What are your Hemoglobin A1C percentages?
I'm very low around 5.8% - 6.2%, but it sometimes comes with a price (low blood sugar occurrences). However the Humalog insulin works MUCH better than older Regular stuff that would continue to work 4 hours after the shot.
Are your eyes still in good condition?
Best wishes on your continued health. 50 years w/ T1 and doing well with your health is an outstanding accomplishment.
Thank you,
Spartex
Thanks p3 for that additional text on statins observations.
The reasons for discontinuation were not available from the database, though disruption in treatment has been associated with poor adherence in previous studies of statins and other medications.
Doesn't the above statement (and below) literally nullify the overall validity of the observational findings? In other words, this elevated heart risk could have been primarily due to, well, not taking their statin, whether or not it was Lipitor or simavastatin for that matter!
"showed that patients who were switched from Lipitor to simvastatin were more than twice as likely to discontinue their treatment compared to those who remained on Lipitor therapy (20.5 percent versus 7.62 percent, p(less than)0.001)."
Corky, I've been on simvastatin the past three years, and since it doesn't do much for lowering LDL, my doctor recommended taking Vytorin, which contains both Zetia® (ezetimibe) and Zocor (simvastatin). Well, my LDL went from 100 down to 63.
Question I have is understanding this "relative risk" for people going from Lipitor atorvastatin to simvastatin tablets. Although I've been a type I diabetic for 20 years, my health is excellent.
Any cardiologists or knowlegable folks on statins have any thoughts regarding this UK finding, as well as any other information on this subject.
Thanks!
Spartex
Does anyone have an idea what a partner might pay for ex-US rights for Androxal? The reason I ask is we have a 140 mil market cap company with $30 mil in the bank, and most of us bulls believe the stock should be closer to $200-250 market cap based on the recent results (androxal and proellex) and safety news on Proellex. It's as if the street is assigning zero value to Androxal, and very little to Proellex too. I know rfj and others believe that part of the problem is that JP isn't providing enough visibility to wall street. I can almost do a one for two (regn for rprx) trade with my REGN shares now that they are back up to almost $21!
We should have news here in the next 1-2 weeks on the acceptance (lack of hearing "no" is equivalent to acceptance) of IND for endometriosis and I am hoping a PR includes details of the quick to be initiated PII trial.
Well, two weeks have past since your post. I would hope we'd hear some news by the end of this week. Very little volume or interest in the shares at the moment.
Regards,
Spartex
Exercise may generate new blood vessels
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
2 hours, 35 minutes ago
VIENNA, Austria - Having a bad heart doesn't mean you can skip exercise, doctors said Wednesday. In fact, it may even help your heart to repair itself. Research presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting showed that exercise sparks the creation of new heart vessels.
In a small study of 37 people at Leipzig University in Germany, Dr. Robert Hollriegel found that people with serious heart failure who rode a bike for up to 30 minutes a day for four months produced new stem cells in their bones.
They also had more small blood vessels in their muscles. Those who didn't exercise had no change in their vessels or muscles.
Most patients with heart failure are over 70 years old, and some can barely walk a few steps without stopping for rest. Doctors think that even these patients would benefit from light exercise such as walking or cycling. To ensure that patients will be able to handle a certain level of physical activity, doctors conduct a test first to determine their maximum limits and to ensure they would not be exceeded. Some exercise regimens also are supervised by health professionals.
"We're not talking about patients with acute heart problems," said Dr. John Cleland, a heart failure specialist at the University of Hull in Britain who is spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology. Cleland was not involved in Hollriegel's research.
"This is to prevent people from getting into a cycle of deterioration where they're afraid to exercise and they just avoid any activity that leaves them out of breath," he said.
Physical activity strains the heart's arteries and muscles by sending 10 times the normal amount of blood to the muscles being used. Stem cells then are dispatched to relieve this stress and may repair any damaged parts. If you continue to exercise, these stem cells help the body adapt to the stress, by building new blood vessels and strengthening muscles. But to maintain such benefits, you must exercise regularly.
Cleland said that people with heart failure should exercise to a state where they're breathless at least once a day. Pushing the limits of their heart's capabilities should help make it stronger.
"People think that if they have heart failure, then they're at the end of the road and they can't exercise," said Dr. Freek Verheugt, a cardiologist at the University of Nymegen in the Netherlands. "But this study shows that exercise can work to produce new blood vessels, even in patients with serious heart disease."
Because no drugs exist to produce new stem cells, exercise may be the only method for some patients to rebuild their hearts.
"We are not saying that patients should run marathons, but there is no other way to augment your arteries," said Dr. Francois Carre of Rennes University Hospital in France. "Patients have to exercise if they want that."
Previous studies have shown that people who do physical therapy after a heart attack live longer than those who don't. Experimental studies in rats have also suggested that exercise can even be more effective than statins, drugs that are commonly used to treat heart disease.
Though doctors routinely recommend that patients exercise, it is not an actual treatment. Carre thinks that should change. "We need to write patients prescriptions to exercise the same way we write prescriptions for drugs," he said.
"People have been trying for years to create a polypill to treat many different parts of heart disease," Carre said. "But that already exists. It's exercise."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_he_me/heart_exercises
I guess I'll have to continue doing those 10-13k hard workouts on the Concept III rowing machine 3x a week, in addition to weights, and other exercies (cycling, elliptical) since I can't run at the moment. ;) Too bad our technological revolution/evolution is leading to an epidemic in low exercise behaviors.
Well if you have some of Boog Powell's BBQ pork, chicken or beef with the fixings (cole slaw and beans) you're sure to be pleased. ;)
Biowatch are you local to the DC region? That's where I'm from.
Mary Meeker’s Fuzzy Math
Damn, the writer was nice, that's not fuzzy math, that G-damn sloppy math by not recognizing the units used by these companies for their revenues. Sheeet, I wonder who's head is going to roll from this?? An underling of Mary Meeker??
An error of 1000 fold magnitude in projected revenue for YouTube. Wheeeew!
I loved the Blodget description of this as "backing in the numbers" and that it was a common practice!! Hell, I didn't get to use this safety net response to correct any infrequent errors in my college chemistry exams. Yes, Professor, I'd like to back in that number because I didn't realize a milligram/liter (mg/L) was really 1/1000th of a gram per liter rather than 1 gram! :)
you can find articles all over that anticipated it's arrival on the market, but Proellex garners no interest, the whole class is depreciated due to the Aso halt.
In some ways I believe Joe P. is taking a somewhat coy posture with Proellex, possibly due to the bad press on the Asoprisnil fallout. I believe, if Proellex is what we believe it is, that RPRX will appreciate eventually over time as additional publications and trial design information comes out. fyi, below is a good summary by dewophile from back in Dec. 2, 2006 which is also part of the RPRX "must read" link.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=14257730&txt2find=rprx
io_io, SCHERING PLOUGH CP (NYSE:SGP) has a market cap of $44.74 billion. A 5% decline from that marketcap = $2.237 billion, with a capital B! So yes, success with Proellex could light up the biotech skies for RPRX if they are able to thread the needle with this important drug. RPRX could see that $80 plus potential w/ Proellex, and that doesn't include the runner up Androxal.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SGP
I received an email response back from Joe P, RPRX's CEO regarding your post that I'm replying to on ways RPRX could further communicate their trial information to the medical and investment community. I'm paraphrasing his reply in this post.
Joe said that they have several publications in the works. However, as many here know, the review process is slow at the journals. He said that their recently completed trials will have the final study reports written for journal publication. It may take around 6 months time before they have several articles submitted for publication, however journal review time will most likely add to that timeframe (another 3 months??).
He also said that medical writers are busy completing the clinical study reports. Once completed RRPX will use these writings as a basis for a journal article highlighting the features of their study that they think are most important.
I think this is a good effort, but it doesn't come close to the kind of strategies you have nicely detailed in your post.
If I were you I'd give Joe P. a call directly to dicuss some of your ideas further. His direct line 281-719-3447.
Thanks again for your ideas rfj. Maybe you could be part of RPRX's solution for greater visibility??
Regards,
Spartex
SNUS Oct $5 strike call options
Walldiver, what do you think of these calls for Sonus that are priced around $1.10 right now and will timed right for release of SNUS's P3 trial in late Sept. If good news, stock could move up 50-100%, thereby yielding marginal gain - $2 bucks above cost. Is this a better bet than buying the stock at $4 bucks right now?
Thanks for your thoughts.
OT: In the final analysis, being rich is mostly correlated to how lucky you are because success is 90% luck, 9% hard work, and 1% your ability to make the right decisions. However, making the right decisions is not always correlated to being smart because the right decision is often not the logical one...
Wow, Crou, I believe the opposite. I believe wealth/health and also happiness is correlated with: 95% hard work along with making the right decisions along the way, and maybe 5% luck.
Even with investments, being successful is knowing how to read through the lines with the quality of a company's management, the competition, institutional support/coverage, and a knowledged or knowing through study understanding the variables most important to affected a company success (or lack thereof) over time. However, I will atest that doing this with small biotechs successfully is VERY difficult.
Good Feb 08 call volumes for $10 strike.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=RPRX&m=2008-02
fyi, a friend of mine bought 170 of these earlier today at $2.40
He might buy another 110 tomorrow.
Seems like a reasonable bet Cleverrox. They are only asking $1.70 at the moment for Nov $10 strike calls.
Thanks Dew, I had read a similar testosterone article in Men's Health magazine a month ago and one of the issues that they believe lead to this increased decline in production of testosterone in men was related to weight gain. Of course, that is correlated very closely with "lack of exercise" also mentioned in the article you posted. Nonetheless, there will be people in our modern society that will ask their physician for some help if their testosterone production drops below normal levels. Some critics will say that these drugs, such as Androxal, may be considered "lifestyle drugs". Well, yeah, in some ways they are, people are not living healthy lifestyles are looking for a quick fix. Just like diabetics (type II esp.) that don't exercise enough, they will see elevated blood glucose levels in their bloodstream, higher hemoglobin A1C and the adverse results to their organs. They will therefore request better oral medications and even insulin in many cases....rather than focusing on the benefits of exercise. I haven't heard people calling type II diabetic medications "lifestyle drugs" yet. :) This goes back to a post I made a few months ago that stated many of these type II diabetics could be managed efficiently and effectively through a healthy exercise and diet, without drugs or minimal use of oral medications. However, our society continues to live in denial and expects silver bullets to take care of their lifestyles. Anyone following a lifestyle of good diet and exercise will probably not need a whole lot of pills from our biotech world. However, I for one am grateful, as without insulin I'm a dead duck. But I fulfill the other half of the equation to maintain health.
I still think Androxal has an important value and high market potential once it goes through the final P3 trials for males that actually need it, as well as those that end up sitting on their butt most of the day and not exercising. I'm glad to see this testing data from Beaverton, OR. It may bring to light the prevalence of men with sub-normal testosterone. And, it continues to plant seeds in my head for wellness business!
Regards,
Spartex
I don't think the IDEV news has too much relavance, as this was already anticipated, and I believe we've discussed IDEV's weak sales for Nebido overseas. Just my opinion.
I really believe as some have pointed out that a hedge fund or other funds are just exiting their RPRX position, along with retails too. I don't think the weak overall market has affected all biotechs, let alone RPRX. My REGN has stayed strong the past few weeks, as has DNDN.
Once the seller of RPRX is done, we should move back up over $12 and stabilize before other news releases.
Yes, I wish I had more dry powder available for this opportunity! If I was smart like Guy I would have sold most of my RPRX, too, in the $13's and picked up much more REGN when it was $13.8 to $14. One can't always know what's around the trading corner with some of these darn biotech stocks.
Biotech nosedive?? Well, my DNDN and REGN seem to be holding/rising ground right now. But I'll just have to let RPRX go its own willy way to the downside before it regains some traction imo.
Email sent. I'll let you know if I get a reply.
Thanks
OT: Greek fires reach ancient Olympics site By JOHN F.L. ROSS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 1 minute ago
Being of 100% Greek decent, this news item hits close to home. It also disgusts me to hear about the arsonists - land developers- that are believed to have started some of these fires to get around forest protection laws. Unfortunately, greed has adverse impacts on the environment. I've only been to Greece once as a lad of 16 (30 years ago!) and vividly remember going under the stone arch leading into the ancient stadium of Olympia. I hope much of this ancient history is still there when I plan to take my family for a visit. The way things are going I better make my plans sooner than later! May the rains come in soon to help rescue this land of great history.
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Firefighters backed by aircraft dropped water and foam on the birthplace of the ancient Olympics Sunday to stop wildfires from burning the 2,800-year-old ruins, one of the most revered sites of antiquity.
But the fires burning for three straight days obliterated vast swathes of the country and the death toll rose by 11 on Sunday to 60. New fires broke out faster than others could be brought under control. Desperate residents appealed through television stations for help from a firefighting service already stretched to the limit and many blamed authorities for leaving them defenseless.
"Fires are burning in more than half the country," said fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for Greece."
Early Monday morning, the fire department said 42 major fires were still blazing out of control.
Government and firefighting officials have suggested arson caused many of the blazes, and several people had been arrested. The government offered a reward of up to $1.36 million for anyone providing information that would lead to the arrest of an arsonist.
Forest fires are common during Greece's hot, dry summers — but nothing has approached the scale of the last three days. Arson is often suspected, mostly to clear land for development. No construction is allowed in Greece in areas designated as forest land, and fires are sometimes set to circumvent the law.
The front of one fire Sunday reached Ancient Olympia in southern Greece, burning trees and shrubs just a few yards from the museum at the site. Firefighters said the flames, fanned by high winds and swirling air, leaped hundreds of feet in the air at times.
The nearby grounds of the International Olympic Academy were completely burned, as was the grove where the heart of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, is buried.
Although the pristine forest around Ancient Olympia was burned, none of the ruins were damaged.
Ruined temples of Zeus, king of the ancient Greek gods, and his wife Hera stand on what was a lush riverside site — a flat stretch of land surrounded by pine-clad hills — near the stadium that hosted the ancient Olympic games for more than 1,000 years after they started in 776 B.C. The site strewn with fallen columns includes the remains of a gymnasium, a wrestling hall, hostels, bathhouses, priests' residences and altars. The 5th century B.C. limestone temple of Zeus is one of the largest in mainland Greece.
Helicopters and aircraft covered the ruins with water and foam. The flames reached the edge of the ancient stadium, searing the grass and incinerating the trees on the hill above. Volunteers grabbed buckets of water and joined firefighters.
"We don't know exactly how much damage there is in the Olympia area, but the important thing is that the museum is as it was and the archaeological site will not have any problem," Culture Minister George Voulgarakis told The Associated Press at the site.
Firefighters remained in the area after dark to ensure the fire did not re-ignite.
"It's hell everywhere," said Costas Ladas, a resident of Kolyri near Ancient Olympia, who said the fire covered more than a mile in three minutes. "I've never seen anything like it."
Local schoolteacher Gerassimos Kaproulias criticized the government, saying it was totally unable to deal with the fires.
"I am very angry," he said. "Nobody thought that one of the five most highly protected areas in Greece could be burned like this."
The fire also blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina, destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in their hands.
The worst-affected region was around the town of Zaharo, south of Ancient Olympia. Thick smoke blocked out the summer sun and could be seen more than 60 miles away.
The worst of the fires have been concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Strong winds blew smoke and ash over the capital, blackening the evening sky and turning the rising moon red.
In the ravaged mountain villages in the Peloponnese, rescue crews found a grim scene that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in. Dozens of charred bodies have been found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars.
The remains of a mother hugging her four children were found near the town of Zaharo in the western Peloponnese.
Four people were killed in a new fire that broke out on Evia on Sunday, including two firefighters, the fire department said. Another two people were found in villages in the Peloponnese.
New fires also broke out Sunday in the central region of Fthiotida — one of the few areas that had been unscathed, Diamandis said.
Elsewhere, flames were about less than two miles from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios, a 2,500-year-old monument near the town of Andritsaina in the southwestern Peloponnese, said the town's mayor, Tryphon Athanassopoulos.
"We are trying to save the Temple of Apollo, as well as Andritsaina itself," he told Greek television.
Across the country, churchgoers prayed for the blazes to abate.
Nearly 4,000 soldiers, backed by military helicopters, were sent to reinforce firefighters over the past three days, and at least 12 countries were sending aid.
____
Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_re_eu/greece_fires
rfj, I concur with your excellent suggestions 100%! Do you have the time or interest to broach this approach with JP? A possible consulting gig for you? I think this is where the weakness of a "virtual company" comes into play. In other words, they don't have the manpower or resources to put this network and information together to help better promote their trialed drugs throughout the proper channels, communties and investors.
Thanks for your suggestions! Maybe one of us can email this feedback to Repro??
Regards,
Spartex
If it doesn't, it's like 10% of the value of the company.
What is the company's estimate of ex-US value for Androxal? What is your dollar value for "10% of the value of the company"? Right now according to current market cap that would only be $15 mil.... lol.
thanks
Dewophile, I am not a subscriber of BSR at the moment, so my inference from the recent newsletter was from Bio_Pete's initial thoughts. That said, the selling may in fact be one of the fund holders that has decided to exit their position. If that is all we have, then the price should rebound smartly once this seller is finished. Again, if the story still remains strong for RPRX, this price in the upper $11's is a bird's nest on the ground. ;)
Yep, we've had some light sellers the past two weeks. I believe the run up to $14's during market correction was hedge funds closing out their short positions, and after that was done the sellers have brought the price down (as there aren't any real buyers lately). This dribble down reminds me of the spring pullback to the mid-9's. I guess mid to upper 11's is a damn cheap valuation considering the entire RPRX asset package. Some institutions will jump back in soon imo.
And BSR's newslatter may have made some holders skittish. Guess it creates an opportunity for others that believe in the story here.
http://www.stockta.com/cgi-bin/analysis.pl?symb=RPRX&num1=9&cobrand=&mode=stock
Dew, he meant responses back from Thomas and "dewophile", not DewDiligence (yourself).
In the meantime, it looks like the biotech market is grinding a tad lower on lower volume in light of the recent market correction, and the fact that it's August.
Nerf, did you escape NSMG before the stock got hit by a virtual hurricane? Wondering if 10 cents is the load up zone. There's a lot of potential for big hurricane hits over the next 2-3 months.
Cheers and glta,
Spartex
OT: Finance salary averages from highs to lows for counties' around the world. USA is on top, as was my belief. Professional soccer is young in the US, but if it goes the way of David Beckman deal by LA Galaxy ($250 for 10 years) I think the US soccer salaries will also rule the world. Just the way of rich corporate US sports deals I'm afraid. I'm not a proponent of this direction by any means.
http://www.marketinghire.com/careers/surveys/0806/marketing-among-highest-paid-departments.htm
<<The truth is U.S. doctors are paid much much more than doctors in other countries.>>
So are US professional athletes, movie stars, hedge fund managers, and many other professions compared to overseas salaries, and doctor's help save lives not entertain or take huge commissions like hedge funds do. Not lol.
OT:Shorting Cramer
Barron's Cover Story, 8/20/2007
By BILL ALPERT
LMAO and so happy to see Barron's bring in a statistical-computing expert from London for hedge funds and major investment funds, to show how Cramer's picks have been underperforming the S&P500 index, while the appearance from CNBC is that Cramer's making his loyal viewers rich!
THANKS TO HIS NIGHTLY CNBC SHOW Mad Money, Jim Cramer has become the chief cheerleader for the bull market, or what was the bull market until a few weeks ago. Last spring, he was giddily exhorting the Dow Jones Industrial Average toward 15,000, with no troubles in sight. Earlier this month, as the Dow tumbled in the direction of 13,000, he had an on-air meltdown, complete with screaming, sobs and predictions of financial doom. The clip quickly made the rounds on YouTube. Friday, after the Fed cut the discount rate, he said that the Dow's run to 14,500 had begun. With dramatic pronouncements like that, it's no wonder that more than 100,000 viewers tune in each weeknight for his antic mashup of sound effects, Streetwise advice and stock picks.
It's those stock picks that caught our attention. Cramer, by all accounts, had a stellar career as a hedge-fund manager. And he is held out by CNBC as the guy who can help viewers make big money. But a comprehensive and careful review of his stock picks by Barron's finds that his picks haven't beaten the market. Over the past two years, viewers holding Cramer's stocks would be up 12% while the Dow rose 22% and the S&P 500 16%, according to a record of 1,300 of the CNBC star's Buy recommendations compiled by YourMoneyWatch.com, a Website run by a retired stock analyst and loyal Cramer-watcher.
We also looked at a database of Cramer's Mad Money picks maintained by his Website, TheStreet.com. It covers only the past six months, but includes an astounding 3,458 stocks -- Buys mainly, punctuated by some Sells. These picks were flat to down in relation to the market. Count commissions and you would have been much better off in an index fund that simply tracks the market.
When we asked Cramer and CNBC for their own records of Mad Money's stock-picking performance, they had more excuses than a Tour de France cyclist dodging a blood test. They complained that the list from YourMoneyWatch.com contained some stocks from the program's "Lightning Round," in which Cramer gives a quick analysis and a buy or sell decision on stocks phoned in live by viewers. These, they argued, shouldn't count in our tally.
CNBC officials also said that viewers should buy Cramer's picks a week after they're aired. They said that the show is mainly educational, and not just about stock-picking. In the end, they said we should focus only on the tiny universe of stock selections -- about 12 a week -- that Cramer researches the most. And we should do it only for the issues picked this year. CNBC analyzed these stocks, and said that if held for one month, they beat the S&P by 0.8%, or 1.7% after two months. They offered no results for the year-to-date.
We analyzed those stocks ourselves, and, as in all our calculations for this story, relied on Patrick Burns, a statistical-computing expert in London who consults for hedge funds and major investment firms.
It turns out that CNBC did its analysis incorrectly, and that the stocks beat the S&P by 0.4% in one month and 1.2% over two months. CNBC measured the stocks' performance against the average performance of the S&P year-to-date, instead of against the performance of the S&P from the date of each stock pick. Also, it included more than 100 recently recommended stocks that weren't held for the full one- or two-month holding period that CNBC claimed.
More important, the stocks fell short of the S&P by a statistically significant 2.2% through last week.
Our question is: How are viewers supposed to know that they should pay attention only to this subset of stock picks each week and ignore the thousands of others that Cramer makes on his show?
Then there's the day-after-pop phenomenon. Our analysis of Cramer's picks over the past two years, from YourMoneyWatch.com, showed that, on average, the stocks jumped 2% the day after he mentioned them. From there, they usually moved sideways or down for the following 30 trading days (see chart). This offered an opportunity to make money -- 5% to 30% a year -- by selling Cramer's selections short.
Cramer agrees that there is a shorting opportunity in the temporary effect he has on stocks -- a trade that he'd jump on if he still were at a hedge fund. "If you short the bump, you will do well," he said last week. "I've said it on the show many times."
There's no doubt that Cramer is trying diligently to make you money. His advice is generally smart, his knowledge of individual stocks amazingly detailed. But the credible evidence suggests that the telestockmeister's picks aren't beating the market. Did you really expect more from a call-in host who makes 7,000 stock picks a year?
THE 52-YEAR-OLD CRAMER HAS PROVEN HIMSELF a Renaissance man, if you don't mind applying that term to someone who goes on TV donning everything from Rasta wigs to football helmets, and, on a bad day, decapitates bobble-head dolls made in his own likeness. He struck it rich in the heyday of hedge funds, started a successful online media company and put up some of the best financial journalism in print and broadcast. Simultaneously.
He's written several books, including Confessions of a Street Addict, a wonderful memoir of his highs and lows as a trader and entrepreneur. It's peopled with the amazing Old Boy network that Cramer started building during his days as a student at Harvard: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, New Republic editor-in-chief Martin Peretz, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. And, it turns out, the screaming, chair-throwing character that Cramer plays on TV is based on the real-life person he was, as he pursued success through any obstacle, including those of his own making. In the memoir, Cramer freely confesses to his screw-ups, as he continues to do on Mad Money. That self-flagellation makes him a lovable protagonist in a modern American success story.
Table: 10 Biggest PopsAfter entering Wall Street as a Goldman Sachs broker, Cramer started his hedge fund in 1987. The market crashed, but he was in cash. His firm, Cramer Berkowitz, went on to rack up 24% annualized returns over the next decade or so, a performance for which Cramer generously shares credit with his former colleague, Jeff Berkowitz, and one of the firm's traders: his then-wife, Karen.
If Mad Money offers unconvincing proof of Cramer's long-term stock-picking prowess, so does his account of his hedge-fund activities. His memoir suggests that some of Cramer Berkowitz's profit came from clever trading. The $300 million fund might execute hundreds of trades a day, some of them a bit gimmicky. Cramer describes how they'd find a stock in which selling had petered out, then build a position. Next, they'd hunt up some bullish news on the company and feed it to sellside analysts and reporters. On the subsequent rise, Cramer could profit by selling out his position. "Buzz merchandising," his book calls it. Smart and effective, but definitely not in the fuddy-duddy style of Graham & Dodd.
In December, Cramer made a video for TheStreet.com describing the ways his hedge fund had used tricky trading techniques. He said hedge funds could pass negative rumors to "bozo" reporters. When the video circulated through Wall Street and caused an uproar. Cramer said that he'd only been talking hypothetically, to blow the whistle on the hedge-fund industry's bad actors.
OF COURSE, CRAMER DIDN'T NEED REPORTERS to get out the story on his stocks. Early on in his hedge-fund career, he pioneered a new kind of participant journalism through his frequent magazine columns and television appearances. Cramer talked to his audience from the playing field, instead of from the distant press box where other financial journalists sat.
In outlets like SmartMoney, he often discussed stocks that his fund owned. That was a good thing, if Cramer imparted valuable information and didn't secretly trade against his recommendations. Over the years, regulators have frisked Cramer's trading records for duplicity. They've always found him clean.
In 1996, Cramer launched TheStreet.com, his own financial-media vehicle. Three years later, the mania for dot-com stocks was epidemic. At their initial offering, shares of TheStreet.com's (ticker: TSCM) were priced at $19, but opened at $60. For a short while, Cramer's stake was worth upward of $250 million. Then the dot-com bubble burst, driving the stock below a dollar by 2001.
But the Website survived the shakeout, and the stock now is around $10. TheStreet.com has become a feisty competitor to other online financial news sites -- including those of Dow Jones (ticker: DJ), which publishes this magazine and is half-owner of Smart Money. Cramer has always been the site's main draw, but TheStreet.com has employed many other talented editors and reporters.
After retiring from his hedge fund in 2000, Cramer became a full-time journalist, writing for TheStreet.com and New York magazine. But he had the most fun on TV. For years, he'd pitched broadcasters, trying to get his own show. He finally succeeded with CNBC, the financial channel owned by the NBC Universal unit of General Electric (GE); first, with Kudlow & Cramer, and then, in March 2005, with Mad Money. (Dow Jones currently has an agreement to supply content to CNBC).
CNBC's evening schedule had been Desolation Row for years. Mad Money changed that, grabbing viewers with a combination of unequivocal stock picks and slapstick -- a concept that Cramer developed with the help of his nephew and co-writer Cliff Mason, as well as some talented CNBC producers. By cable-television standards, the show has been a hit, with its Nielsen ratings rising every year to a 2007 level of 134,000 homes -- many of them fairly affluent.
http://online.barrons.com/home/main
Side note: Link to Youtube of Cramer's rant on market meltdown. I love his Dom personality performance and the woman interviewing him as the "submissive". :) They should get a woman in there that can whip his ass into shape. lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWksEJQEYVU
Dendreon Breast Cancer Drug, Neuvenge, Shows Effect in Trial
By Luke Timmerman
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Dendreon Corp., the developer of a treatment to stimulate the immune system against prostate cancer, said a small study suggests the same technique may help women with breast cancer.
A clinical trial of Neuvenge showed that four of 18 patients taking the treatment, or 22 percent, had their tumors shrink or stabilize, according to results published in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The Seattle-based company, which has no marketed products, lost almost $1 billion of its market value May 9, when its leading drug candidate, Provenge, was delayed by a request from U.S. regulators for more proof that it works. Dendreon presented early results for Neuvenge, its only other drug in human testing, at a scientific meeting in March 2004. The company hasn't invested since in any large clinical trials needed for approval.
``The data are attractive, but there have been a lot of advances in breast cancer since patients enrolled in this trial,'' said David Miller, president of Biotech Stock Research, an independent equity research firm in Seattle, in a telephone interview. ``It's a good example of a great drug that a company didn't invest in fast enough.'' ( Come on David, you can be a bit more balanced than that! Not lol. )
Dendreon's shares rose 11 cents to $7.32 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The shares have gained 76 percent this year.
The study found Neuvenge was well-tolerated, with side effects including fever and chills after infusions that lasted one or two days, similar to those for Provenge, the experimental prostate cancer treatment.
Aggressive Tumors
Patients in the trial failed to respond to prior rounds of chemotherapy and Genentech Inc.'s Herceptin, for women with a mutation of a breast cancer gene called Her-2.
Once on Neuvenge, one patient had tumors shrink for six months. Three others had their disease stabilize from 75 to 94 weeks, with no other treatments, researchers said.
``I personally think it should have moved on in clinical trials, it merits that,'' said John Park, an oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and the study's lead author, in a phone interview. ``The company was also trying to develop Provenge and that was further along.''
Dendreon had $143.7 million in cash and investments as of June 30. Based on its rate of spending, largely to support Provenge, it may have $50 million to $75 million in cash left by the second half of 2008, when it expects to have results from a study of 500 men with prostate cancer, the company has said.
Immunotherapy
Neuvenge, described as an immunotherapy, doesn't work like a traditional cancer treatment. Blood is drawn from a patient, and some white blood cells vital to the immune system are separated in a lab.
The white blood cells are shipped to the company and incubated with a genetically engineered protein found on some breast cancer cells, Her-2. The white blood cells are supposed to recognize the protein as an invader and attack the cells that contain it. The revved-up white blood cells are then shipped back and re-infused into the patient.
``These types of results clearly validate the approach we're using,'' said David Urdal, Dendreon's chief scientific officer, in a telephone interview.
The trial also showed evidence that patients developed stronger immune systems within eight weeks against a cancer- related biomarker, Urdal said. Such measurements, which may explain why patients did better on Neuvenge, didn't exist when earlier Provenge trials were done, he said.
Dendreon is still working on plans to further develop Neuvenge, although the company's top priority is winning FDA approval of Provenge, Urdal said. If Neuvenge moves into advanced trials, it could be tested against types of breast, ovarian or colon cancer that have the Her-2 gene mutation, he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Luke Timmerman in San Francisco at ltimmerman@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 17, 2007 18:00 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=DNDN:US&sid=aXP0Kamq...
OT: Thanks haveseenit all, and dendreonrich for those links. Sounds like today's volume of ~152k is reasonably close to the sale and buy volume for the stock. I'm still wondering if anyone has access to the trades that occurred around 2:45 pm today?
Cheers,
Spartex
DocBanker, re: 150k shares sold today. Did you mean 75k shares sold? I thought the sales and buys were each part of the total volume (added together). Not trying to be picky, it was just my understanding of naz volume count.
That said, did you see any block buys today (block being anything over the size of 10k shares)? Looks like some activity around 2:45 pm today (40k volume).
Thanks and have a great weekend, this past week was definitely a volatile one and test of many people's nerves.
Regards,
Spartex
Someone just put an ask size out for "172" at 12.70.
Looks like it just got traded down near 12.66
Interesting, and I wonder if it is related to options exp. -- hell a lousy 400 call contracts at 12.5 strike, lol!
Regardless, these prices are good for buying imo.
Could be an AMEX glitch?
Meanwhile, tell me why REGN is up from the lows of $16's yesterday to now low $18's??? Crazy ossilations going on.
Fed Cuts Discount Rate by 1/2 Point
Friday August 17, 8:21 am ET
Federal Reserve Cuts Discount Rate by 1/2-Percentage Point
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve, declaring that increased economic uncertainty poses risks for U.S. business growth, announced Friday that it has approved a half-percentage point cut in its discount rate on loans to banks.
The action was the most dramatic effort yet by the central bank to restore calm to global financial markets which have been roiled in the past week by a widening credit crisis.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070817/fed_interest_rates.html?.v=8
I knew as soon as I saw the SPY pre-market go from down
-1.5 to + 2 that the Fed had come in with an emergency cut. Let's see if this soothes the nerves or not. Countrywide which was bidding up around 20, is now at 22 pre-market. Getting some help from Uncle Benanke. The stock was as low as the $15's yesterday during the market swoon. Imagine if you were brilliant enought to have bought Aug $15 calls for $2 bucks (will trade near $7 at open). http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CFCHC.X Nice move if you did. ;)
Will be interesting to see if RPRX holds $12.5 into expiration today or not.
AP
Fed Cuts Discount Rate by 1/2 Point
Friday August 17, 8:21 am ET
Federal Reserve Cuts Discount Rate by 1/2-Percentage Point
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve, declaring that increased economic uncertainty poses risks for U.S. business growth, announced Friday that it has approved a half-percentage point cut in its discount rate on loans to banks.
The action was the most dramatic effort yet by the central bank to restore calm to global financial markets which have been roiled in the past week by a widening credit crisis.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070817/fed_interest_rates.html?.v=8
I knew as soon as I saw the SPY pre-market go from down
-1.5 to + 2 that the Fed had come in with an emergency cut. Let's see if this soothes the nerves or not. Countrywide which was bidding up around 20, is now at 22 pre-market. Getting some help from Uncle Benanke. The stock was as low as the $15's yesterday during the market swoon. Imagine if you were brilliant enought to have bought Aug $15 calls for $2 bucks (will trade near $7 at open). http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CFCHC.X Nice move if you did. ;)
fyi CNBC is doing a segment now on FDA regarding some people's concerns that they are too restrictive to trials.
docbanker, y3maxx is a trader who uses "candles" TA method to trade. RPRX just went to a "sell" using the candles TA process today.....so I'm sure he may have sold his shares and would like to get in lower. LOL.
I wouldn't give him any attention, as his posts are of little to no value. ;)
Thanks docbanker! Great list of upcoming actions that RPRX should be reporting on during the next 2 quarters. I will print this out and keep it as a reminder of potential events.
Regards,
Spartex
docbanker, any ideas of the next stream of potential RPRX press releases over the next 45 days? Thanks for your update on Androxal review schedule/meeting w/ FDA.
Might there be any FDA meetings w/ RPRX later in August regarding their Proellex fibroids trials for pivotal trial?
Thank you!