Successful Biotech Investing: Every Investor's Complete Guide [Hardcover]

Joe Duarte M.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2001

As the adage goes, "Invest in what you know." Many investors have made fortunes in biotech stocks and funds—a very lucrative but risky sector. If you don't have a medical background, how can you make intelligent picks in biotechnology?

With Successful Biotech Investing, understanding the science and business behind biotechnology is easy. Financial and medical expert Joe Duarte, M.D., masterfully guides you through the complicated world of biotech to show you how to avoid the risks and confidently choose the best stocks and funds for your portfolio. With up-to-date information on everything from vaccines, drugs, and gene manipulation to cloning, aging, and medical devices, this book demystifies the language, reveals the biotech business cycle, and separates the fads from the genuine technology. Inside, you will discover how to:
• Grasp the science to understand—and profit from—new trends
• Analyze companies for research, patents, growth potential, and more
• Find the best biotech funds and index shares
• Understand when to use biotech as a defensive and offensive play
• And much more!

Dr. Duarte's complete lessons teach you both the fundamental and technical analysis of biotech stocks, allowing you to pick the approach that matches your investment style. Detailed analyses on companies big and small, new and old, go behind the scenes to reveal emerging trends, groundbreaking research, and exploding profits. Complete with helpful charts and investment resources, this book is every investor's guide to confidently investing in the biotech sector.

"The author's combined knowledge of medicine, biotechnology, and market analysis comes through at a crucial time for the sector. Easy to read and equally easy to use."—John Murphy, President, MurphyMorris.com


"If ever an industry needed deciphering, it's biotechnology. Joe Duarte combines a knowledge of medicine with Wall Street smarts." —Thom Calandra, Editor-in-Chief, CBS MarketWatch


"Dr. Duarte's dual expertise in medicine and investing makes this an important book for potential investors."—Leslie Kane, Senior Editor, Medical Economics


"A sound analytical approach to biotech investing."—Mark A. Seleznov, Managing Partner, Trend Trader


"If your going to trade biotech stocks, start here!"—J. Michael Pinson Founder and Senior Analyst, MarketMavens.com

Editorial Reviews

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 409 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles (May 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076153301X
• ISBN-13: 978-0761533016
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,651,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe Duarte M.D.,www.joe-duarte.com, is a widely read analyst and writer. His daily Market IQ column is read by thousands of investors, information seekers, and intelligence aficionados and professionals around the world.

Dr. Duarte is is well recognized as a geopolitical and financial market analyst combining a unique set of viewpoints into an original blend of solutions for his audience.

He is author of "Trading Futures for Dummies," "Market Timing for Dummies" "Futures and Options for Dummies," "Successful Energy Sector Investing," "Successful Biotech Investing," and co author of 'After-Hours Trading Made Easy.

He is a board certified anesthesiologist, a former registered investment advisor, and former President of River Willow Capital Management.

Dr. Duarte has appeared on CNBC and looged weekly on the Financial Sense Newshour with Jim Puplava radio show for many years, where he commented on the Energy markets and geopolitics. He has logged appearances on Biz Radio, Wall Street Radio, JagFn, WebFN, KNX radio in Los Angeles, and WOWO radio.

One of CNBC's original Market Mavens, Dr. Duarte has been writing about the financial markets since 1990. An expert in health care and biotechnology stocks, the energy sector, as well as financial market sentiment, his daily syndicated stock columns have appeared on leading financial web sites, including Reuter's e-charts, afterhourtrades.com and MarketMavens.com.

His articles and commentary have been featured Marketwatch.com. He has appeared in Barron's, U.S.A. Today, Smart Money, Medical Economics, and in Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazines.

Dr. Duarte published the critically acclaimed market timing newsletter 'The Wall Street Detective,' from 1990-1998, when it became an exclusively electronic publication.

His daily market commentary 'Joe Knows' appeared on Financialweb.com from 1998-2000.

Dr. Duarte served as senior columnist for investorlinks.com from 1998-2001.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Synthetic Simplicity, June 27, 2001

By 

Jerome Beck (Santa Rosa, CA , USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Successful Biotech Investing: Every Investor's Complete Guide (Hardcover)

This book is not just about biotech investing. Duarte, a technical analyst as well as a physician uses biotechs as a model for approaching the market. The book has all the shortcomings other reviewers warn you of: it's painfully redundant, incomplete and simplistic. But it does offer a consistent approach to stock investing IF you supplement it with other material. It also lists some neat web sites.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars VERY BASIC, June 21, 2001

By 

Martin (Good Ole USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Successful Biotech Investing: Every Investor's Complete Guide (Hardcover)

Don't waste your money, very basic and not very informative. Very generic!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Basic Introduction to Biotechnology Investing, June 4, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Successful Biotech Investing: Every Investor's Complete Guide (Hardcover)

Dr. Duarte is an anesthesiologist, a professional stock commentator and an investment advisor. In this book he seeks to "bring stock picking and science together."

The book gives you a basic scientific background of the biotechnology industry, describes the way that the industry is regulated in creating new drugs, profiles the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, proposes a way to evaluate the fundamental performance of each company, and describes the ways that you can use technical analysis to pick when to buy and sell these stocks.

This helpful information is provided against the context of the wild swings in stock prices as the overall market and general news move stock price levels. He begins by pointing out that the statement by President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair that the rights of biotechnology companies should be restricted was a short-term storm, but a long-term non-event. Such moments provide buying opportunities.

The book has two basic weaknesses. First, it fails to point out that most people should avoid biotechnology stocks. They should be very volatile, and can have stomach-churning drops that will cause many investors to sell at the worst times. The vast majority of ordinary investors should be buying broad-based index funds (see Common Sense on Mutual Funds). Second, the book fails to point out that the rate of discoveries in any given company should be slowing down in the future. This is because after a company is public, it will usually limit R & D to try to create a profit track record and because the science is simply more difficult and lengthy as more proteins and enzymes become involved in solutions. As a result, we could see very long time periods when investments will be under water.

If you have a multiple-year time horizon (such as being under 40), he is probably right that "big bucks are possible for those who see beyond the short-term setbacks in biotechnology." On the other hand, this should probably be a small part of your portfolio, even then.

After you have read and learned from this book, I suggest that you think about your emotional profile as an investor. How have and are you likely to react to taking large losses? What percentage of the time do you need to see your stocks be ahead before you are comfortable? How much money do your feel comfortable losing in the short-term in one stock? These are important questions that will have a large impact on your success in stock investing.

May you meet your finanical goals!