Category Archives: LABD

Decision Point: Biotech

September 28, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, 1929, Bloomberg, LABD, LABD-22-05, Positions, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02, ZeroHedge 1 Comment

To Bounce, Or Not

Final stages of the bear market?

That’s what the ‘analyst’ at this link has to say.

If you know your market history, ‘opinions’ like that were pushed out all the way down to the bottom after the crash of 1929.

As for me, I’m going with the 78-year-old money manager that was quoted saying (paraphrasing):

‘It’s the biggest bear market of my life.’

Back to the analyst above, another opinion could be (looking at price action), we’re not in the ‘final stages’ of anything … except maybe the beginning.

Before we leave the topic, IYR real estate closed at 103.84, when the ‘old-timer’ spoke. Yesterday’s close was 81.43, down -22%, from that level and down – 30.3%, from all-time highs … and counting.

The ‘final stages’ of this decline is (potentially) years, if not decades away.

Biotech Decision Point

With about twenty-minutes before the open, biotech SPBIO, is set higher with leveraged inverse (pre-market) LABD, down approximately – 1.6-pts. (-6.3%).

We’re at a decision point for the sector.

Looking at the chart of inverse LABD below, a trend (and potential trading channel) is clear.

This morning’s gap-lower open is set to test that trend.

SPBIO, Leveraged Inverse LABD, Daily

If biotech remains in its downtrend that started at the August 11th, high of 7,399.86, expectations are for some kind of upside LABD, reversal within the first hour of trade.

If not, price action then opens the door for a move above established resistance at SPBIO, between 7,400 and 7,700.

As unbelievable as that would be, it could still happen.

Summary

The first hour of trade will be watched closely.

Price action itself will define if SPBIO, has fished its down move or if we’re just confirming the trend already established.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

The Biotech Breakdown …

September 25, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, Biotech, LABD, LABD-22-05, Positions, SPBIO, Spring-to-Up-Thrust, TDA-LABD-22-02

Massive Short Volume, Proves Correct

Short-side volume was the key.

The August 13th, update linked here, identified unprecedented volume posting on the short side.

It’s also interesting to note in the very same report, there’s a link to ‘bears capitulate’.

If there was actually some value to the financial press, this would be it; help provide contrary indicators.

So, here we are just over a month later and biotech SPBIO, appears to be in free fall.

Biotech SPBIO ($SPSIBI), Weekly Close

The prior update had this so say about positioning (not advice, not a recommendation):

“Figuratively speaking, everything’s been dropped to focus exclusively on this sector. It’s obvious, what’s going on at this juncture is unprecedented.”

From that August 13th update, the main account for my firm has increased the size of its short position (LABD-22-05), by approximately 34% (not advice, not a recommendation).

Summary

Unprecedented short-volume, points expectations to some kind of unprecedented bad news.

When the market goes south, bad news comes out.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

There is no ‘Spoon’

September 13, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, Biotech, Interest Rates, LABD, LABD-22-05, Livermore, Positions, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02, Wyckoff

Paradigm Shifts

We’re living in the surreal.

Only those who can ‘see’, understand it’s like something out of The Matrix.

The old paradigms no longer apply.

There is no ‘Pivot’

There never was a ‘pivot’; just like there never was a goal of 2% inflation, or full employment.

Way back in 1921, Jesse Livermore pegged it when he told Wyckoff, the whole premise of Wall Street, was to spread “deception”.

Deception is the key.

Attempting to figure out the next earnings release, the CPI or employment numbers, inflation, or what the Fed is likely to do, is to buy into the deception.

Following that deception, is the path of the amateur.

Meanwhile, back on the professional side; as early as 1909, Wyckoff discovered market prices move based on an energy and objective or their own … completely removed from any fundamentals.

A few days ago, this update, discussed how biotech SPBIO, was potentially at a pivot point and ready to reverse lower.

Well, downside reversal is what we have.

Biotech SPBIO, Weekly Close

Even though we still have three trading days left, SPBIO, appears to be confirming the right-side trading channel.

Last Week.

And … this week

With the overall markets down sharply, events appear to be set in motion to continue downside action.

Summary:

As stated in prior updates, the current trade; LABD-22-05, was initiated in anticipation of a significant break lower (not advice, not a recommendation).

On the biotech fundamentals side (not that it matters), the wheels have come off.

The top weighted equities have no P/E … a decent conclusion may be the lower weightings don’t either.

Nobody’s making any money; rates are rising and we’re heading straight into an economic depression.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

The ‘Santa Claus’ Rally

September 10, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, 2007 - 2008, Biotech, Jerimiah Babe, LABD, LABD-22-05, Livermore, Loeb, Pinball Preparedness, Positions, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02, Wyckoff 2 Comments

That Was it!

It’s going to be a very different place come December.

This won’t be like ’08 -’09, where all the stops are being pulled to ‘rescue’ the market.

No, this time really is different.

We can all see by now; the plan is controlled demolition.

Paraphrasing Jerimiah Babe, and Pinball Preparedness, we haven’t even got started (with the collapse) and the public’s already folding up.

What’s it going to be like when it really hits?

This past week, all the major indices have gone through some type of relief rally. Call it a Santa Claus rally because there probably won’t be one this December.

Trading Consistency

Throughout this upward correction, the case has been made over and again, only biotech SPBIO’s in a technical (and fundamental) condition that would allow it to decline farthest and fastest (not advice, not a recommendation).

Wyckoff analysis along with Livermore’s strategic approach that’s coupled with Loeb’s ‘focus’, has led us to (shorting) this sector exclusively.

Strategy, Tactics, Focus

Biotech SPBIO, Weekly Close

Looking at the far-right side of the chart, SPBIO rallied this past week. It looks like it may head higher … that is, until we put in the trend-lines.

Now, let’s put in the trendlines.

Extended trendlines show the downside potential.

We’re about to see how this works out.

Friday’s upward action in SPBIO slowed with inverse LABD, posting narrow (downside) action as well.

Ready to reverse.

Summary

Trading action in the past week amounted to reducing the position size in LABD-22-05, by about 4.6% (not advice, not a recommendation).

If and when SPBIO continues is downward trajectory, that position (shorting via LABD) will again be increased as the market allows.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

We’ve Seen This Movie, Before

September 8, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, 1907, 1929, 1974, 1987, 2000 - 2001, 2007 - 2008, 2022, Biotech, LABD, LABD-22-05, Positions, SPBIO, Spring-to-Up-Thrust, TDA-LABD-22-02

1907, 1929, 1974, 1987, 2000, 2007, … and Now

As Scott Walters has said:

‘It’s different this time.

It’s Worse!‘

That ‘worse’ part includes the adverse moves in the market.

This time around, as opposed to ’07 – ’08, they really do seem to be worse.

Which, brings us to biotech SPBIO.

Biotech SPBIO, Weekly

Just to remind ourselves where biotech is at the moment, we have the un-marked weekly chart.

This sector’s the only one (miners excluded) that’s trading below the 50-Week and 200 Week Moving Averages with a 50-wk cross to the downside.

On a weekly basis, we’re in a major long-term downtrend that looks to have finished its upside correction.

Getting closer-in on the hourly chart we have the following.

SPBIO, Hourly

What do you see?

Here’s the marked-up version.

Over and again; a fractal set-up called ‘Spring-to-Up-Thrust‘.

The zoom chart below shows that price action appears to be struggling at the resistance area (black line).

Danger Point

At this juncture we’re at The Danger Point®

Enough of a push higher and SPBIO, could continue on upward, overcoming significant technical and fundamental barriers.

However, since we’re trending lower in the longer timeframes, probabilities suggest that downtrend may be ready (or near ready) to re-assert itself.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

Biotech (Short), The Details

September 6, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, Biotech, IBB, LABD, LABD-22-05, Positions, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02, The Speck, ZeroHedge 1 Comment

Relentless Positioning For The Downside

Like a terrier on a mailman’s leg, positioning short biotech via LABD, has been relentless (not advice, not a recommendation).

This update details the current positioning via 3X, Leveraged Inverse Fund, LABD.

This is not investment advice; this site has no obligation to provide the following information.

However, as stated in the About section, one of the purposes here, is to document trade actions and results.

With that in mind, the green arrows show the locations of LABD entries for the short-biotech (SBPBIO) trade identified as LABD-22-05.

Biotech SPBIO, 3X Leveraged Inverse Fund LABD, Daily

The magenta arrow at the far right of the chart, is the ‘break-even’ point. It’s about 1.75 – 2.0 points away from the current price.

Note: This is not ‘Dollar Cost Averaging’.

Few in the industry know that ‘dollar cost averaging’ is based on a scam conducted by the bucket shops in the early 1900s.

It’s comforting to know, that method (the scam), has made its way into at least one SEC certification requirement.

There, I feel much better 🙂

One of, if not the main reason for working this trade with the current method, is the real danger this market could ‘implode’ at any minute.

We’re just one (un)planned event away from being down 20% – 50% overnight.

Biotech SPBIO ($SPSIBI), Weekly Close

The weekly close shows SPBIO to be unique among all the major indices (miners excluded).

Not even the sister index IBB, has the weekly MA cross (black arrow) to the downside.

“You Are Here”

On the chart below, the complete positioning short SPBIO is shown as the magenta rectangle.

Also shown, are measured move targets.

Looking at the potential of this trade, the reason for the dogged persistence becomes clear.

Summary

As always, anything can happen … the trade could fall apart.

That’s true.

However, probabilities for continued market downside are increasing, not decreasing.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

Tech Talk, Biotech SPBIO

August 24, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, Biotech, LABD, LABD-22-05, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02, Tech Talk

Standard Fibonacci Test

If biotech’s reversing to the downside, then it’s behaving normally.

As we’ll see below, today was a standard 50%, Fibonacci retrace on the daily.

There’s an added bonus of 1 : 1, correlation on the corrective wave up to that 50%; shown on the hourly chart.

Just to get our bearings, we’ll present the longer time frame, the weekly below.

Biotech SPBIO, Weekly

Next, we’ll get closer in on the daily.

Observe the Fibonacci retrace from the recovery high (8/11/22), the interim low (8/22/22), and today’s potential retrace high.

The next chart is a zoom of the retrace area

Bonus: Hourly Chart w/ Fibonacci Projection

Corrective waves follow an ‘a-b-c’ pattern with each having Fibonacci relationships between themselves.

The hourly chart below has the retrace from the 8/22/22, interim low.

The current location of the top of ‘wave c’, is a near perfect 1 : 1, ratio of the initial ‘wave a’.

The zoom chart below attempts to provide detail on where the wave terminations were identified.

The left blue arrow is the top of corrective wave ‘a’.

The right-side blue arrow is the bottom of wave ‘b’ and the beginning of wave ‘c’.

Summary

So, what does that all mean?

We’re at an inflection point.

If SPBIO has retraced 50%, of its initial leg down from a long term high, then expectations are for continued downside action.

The fact we had a countertrend move that mapped out a near perfect 1 : 1, a-b-c correction, points probabilities to the downside as well.

However, in the market, there are no guarantees.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

Three Amigos of Biotech

August 20, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, BEAM, FATE, IBB, LABD, LABD-22-05, MRNA, Positions, S&P, S&P 500, SPBIO, SPY, TDA-LABD-22-02, TWST, ZeroHedge 2 Comments

BEAM, TWST & FATE

It looks like having a real (positive) P/E, may be about to be important.

The prior biotech update said that so far, no P/E, negative P/E, and ‘no money down’ was not affecting the sector.

That is, until now.

Well, ok. I made up the ‘no money down’, part. 🙂

That little jest does not take away from the fact, biotech SPBIO, and its top three weightings, BEAM, TWST and FATE, have all reversed, decisively to the downside.

For the week just ended, BEAM is down – 22.86%, TWST down – 19.18%, and FATE down – 14.16%.

Back at the ranch in the IBB index, Moderna (MRNA) is also down – 14.65% for the week.

So, we have confirmation the entire industry is now continuing its downward course.

Contrast the reversal of index SPBIO, at – 7.04%, with S&P (SPY) at – 1.16%, and the market itself is telling us where to go for opportunity (not advice, not a recommendation).

At this point, all three amigos (BEAM, TWST, FATE) are in downward trading channels.

Trading channel for BEAM is the most aggressive. The weekly chart is below.

Beam Therapeutics (BEAM) Weekly

If BEAM maintains its channel for the rest of this year, the chart below shows the target area(s) for price action.

The coming week may let us know if this channel will be confirmed or negated.

Recall, the S&P is topping out and appears to be reversing.

Goldman says the squeeze is over but that ‘downside is limited’.

We’ll see.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

The Moderna (MRNA) Channel

August 17, 2022 By in $SPSIBI, Biotech, IBB, LABD, LABD-22-05, MRNA, Positions, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02 1 Comment

Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

We’re about forty minutes into the session; Moderna (MRNA) has just confirmed the up-thrust reversal discussed in the last update.

It took seven trading days for MRNA, to post a new weekly low below 160.06.

That was plenty of time to perform research like finding this bullish outlook and deciding for oneself, whether to be bull or bear.

This update is brief.

Two charts of MRNA, are shown below.

Price action’s in a channel with the right side declining at approx: – 93.7%, annualized.

Moderna MRNA, Weekly Bar

Compressed version.

We’re using MRNA, as the proxy for the biotech sector.

The previous report showed a weak 23.6%, retrace and potential reversal.

With today’s print below 160.06, it looks like an initial confirmation of the right-side trend line (not advice, not a recommendation).

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279

No P/E ? … No Problem … Yet

August 14, 2022 By in Biotech, CVNA, LABD, LABD-22-05, Livermore, Loeb, Positions, SPBIO, TDA-LABD-22-02, Wyckoff 1 Comment

Biotech SPBIO, Has No P/E

Is this like Carvana on steroids?

Looking at the top ten components of the SPBIO sector, making up over 14%, of the weighting, none have a P/E ratio.

The three largest weightings are listed below along with hyperlinks to their corporate summaries or research.

Beam Therapeutics Inc.: BEAM

Twist Biosciences Corp.: TWST

Fate Therapeutics Inc.: FATE

The Return on Equity for the list is Negative – 31.9%

With returns like that, it’s unlikely a positive P/E, is showing up anytime soon.

The Market Itself

Livermore worked to prefect his technique, searching for what’s going to happen in a ‘big way’.

Wyckoff discovered the market itself, decides on its next likely course.

Loeb presented the power of ‘focus’; Concentrated positions that eschewed the mediocre mantra of ‘a well-diversified portfolio’.

It’s important to note, Loeb was the former Vice Chairman of E.F. Hutton. The old commercials from the 70s, like the one linked here, were talking about him: ‘When Loeb talks, people listen’.

The Biotech Short

The vultures are circling this sector.

We’ve already shown in the last update, speculative volume on the 3X Inverse fund LABD, is literally off the chart.

The corporate links above, give us a potential ‘why’ for their short positioning.

All three of those companies have a common theme.

Stay Tuned

Charts by StockCharts

Note:  Posts on this site are for education purposes only.  They provide one firm’s insight on the markets.  Not investment advice.  See additional disclaimer here.

The Danger Point®, trade mark: No. 6,505,279