Contrarian lessons from comedian Ron White (PPHM)

Applied learning happens when a person takes knowledge acquired from one area and adapts it to a different situation.  I'm going to stretch that concept to the limit by suggesting that those who aspire to being true contrarians, that they could learn something from a routine done by comedian Ron White of the Redneck Comedy Tour.

To be a contrarian means to swim against the current, to be bold  and buying when others are scared, and to run for the exits when everyone is rushing in to buy.

Easy to say, not so easy to do though.  The herd doesn't panic without a reason.  When investors start storming out of a stock there's typically some news that spooks them and starts the stampede. With PPHM that news was the release of their fourth quarter and fiscal year end results up to April 30th 2017.

The company reported higher than expected losses and the stock tumbled in after hours trading.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peregrine-pharmaceuticals-reports-financial-results-201402620.html

So what does this have to do with a routine by redneck comedian Ron White?  Check out this video of an old bit he did and  then I'll explain.

That's an abbreviated version, but it makes the point.  Ron is describing a flight where there's engine trouble, forcing his plane to return ten minutes after taking off.  In the full version he describes the aircraft as being as big as a pack of gum, with a velocity that's twice the speed of smell....so slow that they get passed by a kite.

That's not a bad metaphor for a highly speculative stock like PPHM and thousands of others.  If you're going to hop on board a plane like this, you best not be a nervous flyer.  Mr. White though, he has the perfect attitude for someone flying on a small plane or for someone investing in speculative stocks.  

When an announcement is made that the plane has lost oil pressure in one of the engines, while everyone else is nervous....Ron, who's been drinking since lunch, doesn't care.  "Take her down", is his remark..."And hit something hard, I don't wanna limp away from this piece of crap"!!!  

I would argue that's a wise approach with development stage companies that have not yet attained, and may never attain, profitable operations.  Obviously there's going to turbulence, "engine problems" and plenty of bumps and jolts.  If you're going to be "losing your mind" like the young passenger next to Ron White in this little scenario....then maybe its best not to get on the plane in the first place.  

You see it in social media all the time when bad news hits....posters come out of the woodwork moaning and bitching.  No doubt many are disgruntled shareholders upset that their speculative little stock hasn't graduated to inclusion on the S&P 500 index.  

But I sometimes suspect that there are others who are actually buying, and merely looking to influence others into giving up their seats. Buying because they're confident that the plane will right itself and not crash.  It could be hedge fund type players planning on promoting the stock later in my opinion, perhaps knowing that while the past isn't pretty, that there's some positive news coming down the pipe that could get investors excited and buying again.

On the other hand, if social media is full of pump and promotion despite crappy performance...."Don't worry about those results, just wait til next quarter, or next year".  When I see an abundance of that type of activity....as Scooby might say "Rut Roh".  

Not a strategy for the faint of heart though....if you're playing with money you can't afford to lose, to extend the metaphor...plane crashes do happen.

PPHM has had its share of turbulence certainly, in early 2016 they halted a phase III trial which sent the PPS crashing from a split adjusted price around $7 to less than $3....those who gave up their seats to buyers lost out on the climb back above $5 though.  

Now financial results up to April 30th have seen the PPS fall back below $5 to somewhere around $4.50 in after hours trading.  So what does the future hold?  Is it time to panic and get that parachute out?  Or is it better to sit back and enjoy that scotch?  Those results are almost 3 months old of course, the calendar I use says its the middle of July and not April.  

Perhaps you've heard that old saw about the CEO asking his CFO..."How do the numbers look"?  The CFO then says..."How do you want them to look"?  

Anyway me and my friend Johnny Walker know what we'll be doing....take her down, go ahead....cause we don't care, we're just gonna sit back and enjoy the ride.  All you nervous types read the disclaimer at the very bottom of this blog site, actually everyone should read it whether they're nervous or not.  

Peace out.

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (PPHM) January effect candidate?

I've written before about investors falling in love with their stocks.  That doesn't just go for the winners, people fall in love with those that have lost them money too.

Nobody wins them all, I don't care how good you are.  Anyone who believes someone who says they never pick a losing stock, they probably believed Donald Trump's promises about locking up Hillary Clinton and draining the swamp.

Sometimes the loss is blamed on manipulation, but whatever the reason investors have often read all the SEC filings, every PR, all the Motley Fool and Seeking Alpha articles. Message boards have been scoured looking for that golden piece of bullish information that preaches to the converted longs.

But as the year comes to a close, sometimes you have to cut bait and let go, especially if you have gains with other stocks.  Capital losses have value because they can be used to offset gains that have been booked on other stocks.

Still, letting go is hard, and that's where the January effect comes in.

A lot of investors will hold on until late in the year, before finally hitting the sell button in December and booking the capital loss.  But that doesn't mean they stop paying attention to the stock they sold, its still watched closely.  And then after 30 days many will buy back in.  That 30 day period is important because buying back in after less than 30 days means you lose the capital loss for tax purposes.

The result of buyers coming back into a stock is frequently a bounce in the share price.  And sometimes it starts in late December as some who never held a position buy in looking to play the January effect with a beaten down stock.

Fundamentals aside stocks trade based on supply and demand more than anything else.  Obviously the best time to be buying any commodity is when demand is low, and the best time to be selling is when buyers are in abundance.  If many of those who sold for a tax loss storm back into a stock in January, that represents a good time to sell, at a time of heightened demand.

So what makes PPHM a good candidate for the January effect in my opinion?  Let's start with the a look at the chart:

The share price for PPHM cratered in late February 2016 with the announcement the company was halting it's phase III trial of Bavituximab, causing the PPS to fall from over $1.00 to 30 odd cents. For the remainder of the year the stock has been trading in and around 30 to 40 cents with some short lived spikes above 50 pennies.

Obviously anyone who'd bought shares before the trial halt would be sitting on a paper loss, and selling would allow investors to book capital losses to be used as an offset against capital gains.  But now the question is:  Why would anyone want to buy back in?

I see two reasons, the fist being Avid Bioservices, Peregrine's wholly owned subsidiary.  Their contract provider of bio-manufacturing services (as well as providing services for their own development stage drugs)  just reported 2nd quarter revenues of $23.4 million with a reported backlog of $73 million.  According to recent news, with Avid's continued revenue growth, overall profitability is targeted within the next 18 months.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/peregrine-pharmaceuticals-reports-financial-results-210500133.html

And the second reason is also outlined in the above linked PR on the company's financial results. Their drug candidate Bavituximab, while it failed the futility analysis in the company's phase III trial, post hoc analysis of the results may lead to the company finding alternative targets and/or combinations.  

Finally I will bring up short interest, because I consider a critical point of research and DD.  Back in February, before announcing the phase III futility test failure, short interest was over 11.4 million.  As recently as June the number of shares borrowed and sold was still over 9.4 million.  Subsequent to June though the number of shorted shares dropped substantially with the most recent update showing 646,318 shares short current up to November 30th 2016.  

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/pphm/short-interest

Props to short players who booked some solid gains by selling high and buying back low on the cover.  Now with less than 1% of the float short as of the most recent update, I don't see much of a risk/reward play for short players.  Shorting a stock trading for 30 to 40 cents is fraught with risks, especially if the company achieves profitability and/or success with bavituximab.  

We shall see if PPHM does benefit from the January effect.  If it does, then the safest thing to do in my view is to book profits.  As I write in just about every entry on this blog, "nobody ever goes broke taking profits".  I do think there is a potential for PPHM to deliver over the longer term, but as with any stock, there are risks.  If PPHM does bounce in January and then keeps going, those who sold for the January effect could always cry into the money they made.

As always, not a recommendation, just my thoughts and opinions.  Comments are welcome, just no profanity please.  

Good luck

Sunday thoughts - Who exactly is 'smart money'?

Its Sunday, and unlike last week I made it to Church today.  The readings were from Timothy and Luke.  The first being the passage about the love of money being the root of all evil and the second was about Lazarus lying at the foot of a rich man's door with dogs licking his open sores...yes, there wasn't just one Lazarus in the Bible.  Lazarus goes to heaven and the rich man is sent to Hades, crying out to the God of Abraham but he gets no consolation, he had the good life when he was alive.

Hardly the backdrop for a blog about the stock market, where most (and probably all, myself included) invest and trade with the goal of getting rich, or richer as the case may be.  

Our Pastor's sermon was about doing good, its not money that is evil but the love of money.  The rich man who left poor Lazarus outside his door to feed off the crumbs of his table, he could have shown him some kindness, invited him in...and now that the rich man is dead its too late.  The message was ''do good'' don't wait, don't make an excuse.

Ahhh to be rich, to have the money at one's disposal for whatever one wishes.  The markets almost worship wealth, and some investors will choose to put money into a stock because they're following a billionaire.  If social media is any indication many ZIOP investors stormed into that equity based on the involvement of billionaire R.J. Kirk, I myself took a flyer on another biotech based on Mr. Kirk's involvement, TBIO.  

Sometimes following a billionaire doesn't work out.  Investors who based the decision to buy Sandridge Energy based on the activist position of Leon Cooperman know that all too well, myself included among them.  Resverlogix, a stock I've written about here several times has the backing of billionaire Kenneth Dart, as does another biotech PPHM.

It would seem that having a big player as a backer is no assurance of success, even billionaires get it wrong from time to time.  So should we perhaps not include deep pocketed players in our definition of  ''smart money''?  I will suggest that no....we should not.  ''Smart Money'' players don't have to be billionaires or even millionaires by my definition.

So what is my definition then of a ''Smart Money'' player?

I will offer up what I consider a prime example, and although it is fictitious and from a movie I do believe instances like this occur.  

Younger readers might not be familiar with the movie 'Trading Places' starting Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd which was made in 1983.  I won't bore you with a plot summary, rather I will include a scene available on YouTube.  

In this scene two old gentlemen, the Duke brothers, believe they have in their possession an early copy of a report on the orange harvest.  Their report tells them that the orange crop has been severely damaged by a harsh winter.  Looking to capitalize on this information they instruct their trader to start buying right at the opening bell and to keep on buying.  ''Don't worry if the prices starts climbing, just keep buying''.

What the Dukes don't know is that their copy of the report is doctored, and that the harsh winter didn't damage the orange crop.  Billy Rae and Lewis (Murphy and Ackroyd) are the reason the Dukes have a doctored report and instead of the Dukes getting rich they are financially destroyed.

So what's the point?  The manner in which the Dukes act is the way I think ''smart money'' acts, with bold confidence.  And just like the two traders who see the Dukes open their window on the trading floor and watch them eyeing their trader in the OJC trading pit....I think it can be possible to discern this ''smart money'' buying activity.  Not from the trading floor, (which has now been replaced by automated trading) but rather from the chart.

Take note however, the Dukes didn't issue a PR announcing to the world they were going to boldly buy up OJC futures, that would not be smart.  In today's world, if you were 100% confident that you had the inside track would you announce it to the world, spreading messages all over the internet and sending out emails?  No....I don't think so either.  If you did everyone would be buying with hardly any selling and your chances at profits would disappear.

I know in the movie the crop report the Dukes have is wrong....but that's Hollywood.  The guy they paid for it had it stolen and was then dressed up as a gorilla.  As the Dukes are going bankrupt their spy is being sent to Africa to be introduced into the wild gorilla population.

I've belabored this point long enough.  The smart money (no matter whether they're uber wealthy or not) buys with extreme confidence, and that confidence shows up in price and volume movements in a chart.  But note that if those price volume movements come in tandem with lots of Promotion, News and Hype....well then its almost certainly not smart money players but the dumb herd moving in.

Now to tie this in with my Pastor's sermon today....If you make some money in the markets, pay it forward, do some good, we're only here for a short time.  Money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is.  Money can do a lot to ease pain and suffering that exist in our own back yards.

Disclosure, I have long positions in TBIO, RVX and PPHM.  With ZIOP I have placed my bet on the short side.

Good luck