Customer Reviews

Successful Biotech Investing: Every Investor's Complete Guide

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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

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!

This book is far too basic for anyone who graduated high school biology. It is redundant, condecending, and very poorly edited.

Duarte's explanations of scientific/ medical concepts are painfully dumbed down. (Admitedly, I too I am a physician, but I think anyone with even a remote scientific background would agree.)

Worse yet, much of the book is composed of generic and dated summaries of the major biopharma companies (not even an appropriate use of paper in the age of [investment websites]

I was hoping to learn from this book fundamental priniciples for evaluating biotechnolgy companies from a seasoned wall street/ medicine hybrid. But Duarte gives too much general investement advice, and too little advice specific to biotechnology investing...

The book looks great, but it is definitely not worth reading. If you are into technical analysis, you may derive some use from the text. However, I don't see why you need a book devoted to biotech for investing on this basis.

There's a weak chapter on the science (high school level at a stretch); a discussion on investment basics which misses the mark. The markets chapter is fine, but the review of major drug companies is weak. I just found the analysis of the biotech industry to be too weak. There's simply too little analysis and too much opinion.

I have no idea why there's a discussion on mutual funds. Unless the particular vehicle is a sector fund, the manager won't start investing in biotech until the price has appreciated. By then, it's too late.

The MD and CNBC credentials lead me to believe that this book would provide some dynamic insight or a systematic way for cutting through they hype. Sadly, it did neither.

This book provides the average investor with a solid foundation in their pursuit of successful biotech investing.

Most investors invest in biotech stocks based on media exposure and momentum driven markets. There is a glaring lack of any sort of structure to their research or position management. Dr. Duarte's book lays the groundwork for investors to establish a workable system of identifying and managing promising investments. By incorporating risk management techniques (technical analysis), he has provided a dose of reality to balance the inherent optimism the motivates biotech investors. This is crucial as it prevents the blow ups that destroy portfolios as well as investor confidence.

Dr. Duarte has put it all together in this book. The future of biotech stocks is incredible, but investing without a full understanding of the industry is risky. All the knowledge you need to invest successfully in biotech issues is right here!

Since I'm not interested in being a PhD this seems like the perfect book for me and more than likely for the average investor. The thing I really like about this book is that it helps me know how to make money from the coming biotech explosion.

I don't care how this stuff works nearly as much as how to build my net worth by investing. On that point, this is THE book. It has just about everything-understandable explanation of the industry, how to tell which companies are likely to be leaders, and even a reference database.

If I had a book this good at the beginning of the 'high tech' explosion I could have retired already. I would have understood enough about Oracle, Cisco, and all that lot to make even more money. I don't intend to be on the back half of the next wave. I give this book five stars. Thanks a million, $$$, to the author.