Jiesen tries to take over the world

[jiesen]

Sold those shares today for a 7% profit at 6.5. Yikes, that's one trade I feel lucky to have gotten out of alive!

Damn, I should have held onto those NFI shares. Could have had 9/shr if I had kept it just a couple weeks longer.

[jiesen]

Bought ANSV at 6.6

Picked up a 1% position in ANSV today. This one intrigues me, and with the recent FDA approval, I believe it must rise significantly in the near-term. I plan to sell this year with at least a 50% gain (target=$10). If it drops 50%, though, I'll make it a 2% position... Such is the risk of a biotech with $0 coming in.

[billyjoe]

Jiesen,
Was checking out the under $10 stocks today and thought of you when I came across ESMC. Spike , Doug , and Newborn used to post a lot about ESMC 2-3 years ago but nothing recently. Looks promising again . What do you think? Also TUNE keeps popping up on the screens again, maybe you were too early with it.

----------billyjoe

[jiesen]

Heya Billyjoe...

Yeah, TUNE is the story of my life... just didn't have the patience to see it through, would have been pretty good so far, probably still has a ways to go. It seems my patience lasts for the stinkers more often than the winners. Wonder why that is?

Anyway, as for ESMC:

On the surface it looks pretty good, especially with the recent revenue increase (about $10M). Of course on closer inspection that turns out to be a one-time settlement of a lawsuit with Interlase.

This is not a company that $$MM would be comfortable buying- last year they lost $2M.

Still, to me it's interesting, since they did get a recent FDA approval of a glucose analyzer- this should help grow the earnings in the future. The stock seems to be responding well to the news, and it's still more or less inexpensive.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ESMC&t=1y

Consider that the market cap is $46M*, and the net assets for the company are about $20M. If they can get enough business from this new contraption to generate, say, $4M or so in NET income next year, I'd say it's currently priced at a bargain at $7/shr. Wouldn't be too much of a stretch, considering a couple years ago they were making about $2.5M. But that's where you'd want to do your homework, make sure they're not just going to blow the incoming revenue on wasteful projects. I suggest further reading of the 10-Q filings until you're confident they have a good strategy for making that money before putting up the cash.

http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?dcn=0000893220-07-001916&Type=HTML

(it's interesting to note that the CEO hired his son and daughter-in-law for $200K total in consulting)

Also consider, glucose monitoring, creatinine, nitrogen analysis- these aren't all that special or difficult to do- barriers to entry aren't so high here, so ESMC probably won't be able to make tons of money off of this latest device. They'll need to have better things in development for future income. Look for a long-term plan with this guy as well.

Good luck with it if you decide to buy!

*And definitely double-check the $46M market cap I pulled from the Yahoo! Finance data, which is quite often incorrect (but always free), before making any investment decision based on it.

[jiesen]

New investor for LJPC - Fouad El Adli

Looks like a molecular biologist/poker player has just put his $10M into LJPC:

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_L/threadview?m=tm&bn=10714&tid=59922&mid=59931&tof=4&rt=2&frt=2&off=1

How many more of these purchases does LJPC need to soak up the remaining float? Won't take much now to send this stock soaring...

[jiesen]

Bought LJPC at 4.1

added another 1% to my ~20% position in LJPC today at 4.1

[jiesen]

Sold 1% LJPC

sold those shares today at 4.0 for about a 2% loss. I'll try to pick it back up again later at a lower price.

[jiesen]

flip-flopped on LJPC

picked the shares up again and then some at 3.9

[billyjoe]

Jiesen,
Do you know anything about WGBS? Do they really have a dynamite product that will revolutionize DNA research?

--------------billyjoe

[jiesen]

sorry, Billyjoe... no I don't know anything about it. I tried to give it a decent look, but unfortunately have been too busy lately to give it any more than a glance. Things will hopefully settle down a bit in a month or two for me, but for now I can only say that if you want to put money in stem cell research, your best bets are probably ASTM and STEM. They should both get a decent pop the next time the Governator makes more promises to give money to SS research (which funds arguably may still never make it into a commercial lab, after the state bureaucrats get through with it). Also, for gene-on-a-chip technology (among other products) I'd recommend going with ILMN instead.

This outfit (WGBS) seems likely to run outta steam before getting anything on the market- but again, I've only taken a very quick look. I'll try again to take a better look, but I believe this is one you can take your time to evaluate, as it's likely to keep getting cheaper in the short-term.

[jiesen]

Sold GPRO

sold half of my GPRO stock today at 60.0 for a 35% profit.

Sold a 2% position at 68 today, still have a few shares left as pure profit.

[jiesen]

Selling the rally...

just sold about a 1% position in a large-cap index fund today, and am waiting for a big pullback (15-20%) to buy back in with 2%.

[Websman]

just sold about a 1% position in a large-cap index fund today, and am waiting for a big pullback (15-20%) to buy back in with 2%.

Probably not a bad move Jiesen...

So wassup?

[Websman]

I'm thinking about intitianting a position in LJPC here. This thing has been beat down pretty good.

[Websman]

I'm thinking about intitianting a position in LJPC here. This thing has been beat down pretty good.

Just did my analysis. I'll wait a while longer. better prices are yet to come.