Stocks to Watch on Monday March 15th, 2010:
LONG:
ATAI:
CCO:
CIGX:
JOEZ:
ZQK:
SHORT:
ATV:
BWEN:
CNAM:
CYTX:
WILC:
Learn how to Day Trade the Stock Market from a professional trader with over fifteen years of experience. My specialty is offering one-on-one tutoring to each of my students, and my favorite teaching tool is making videos of my trades so that you can see exactly how it's done. I've been teaching Day Trading for six years, and many of my students have become very successful traders. The Day Trading strategy I've perfected is very simple, and very easy to learn.
By: The Associated Press | 09 Mar 2010 | 04:47 PM ETHere is one of the first PR's I saw after the FDA Advisory Panel gave it's decision:
WASHINGTON - Federal health advisers on Tuesday voted in favor of an experimental drug from InterMune Inc., despite mixed evidence of whether it provides significant benefits for patients with a rare lung disease.
The Food and Drug Administration's panel of lung experts voted 9-3 to recommend approval of the company's drug pirfenidone. That recommendation followed a narrower 7-5 vote that the drug provides a "clinically meaningful benefit" for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an often fatal lung disease for which there are no approved drugs.
The FDA is not required to follow the group's advice, though it often does. The agency is scheduled to make its final decision by May 4.
Ultimately, the lack of options for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, appeared to sway a majority of panelists in the drug's favor.
"IPF is a fatal disease and you have to offer your patients hope," said Karen Gottesman, the panel's patient representative. "If this drug can offer your patients even a smidgen of hope, it's worth approving."
Intermune submitted two studies for its drug to FDA, measuring ability to improve lung function in patients. While one study showed a statistically significant 4.4 percent increase in lung strength, another failed to achieve significance compared with placebo.
The FDA usually requires two placebo-controlled trials showing meaningful results to grant approval, a fact cited by several panelists who voted against the drug's benefits.
"We have two competing studies here," said Dr. Peter Terry, of Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions. "Based on the agency's requirement for substantial evidence I don't think this meets the criteria for clinically meaningful benefit."
Most panelists agreed the drug's effect was modest and that long-term follow-up would be needed to determine whether it can extend patient survival. While slightly more patients taking pirfenidone survived compared with patients taking placebo, there wasn't an overall survival benefit in the company's studies, according to the FDA.
"Some people were expecting a cure, this is not a cure," said Dr. Richard Honsinger, of Los Alamos Medical Center. "This drug just slows the decline caused by the disease."
In a separate vote, panelists ruled 9-3 that pirfenidone was safe for patients. Most panelists said side effects such as nausea, rash and fatigue were tolerable, considering the fatal nature of the disease.
While some pirfenidone patients experienced abnormalities in liver function, those issues mostly resolved after patients discontinued the drug.
About 200,000 people in the U.S. and Europe have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The disease causes scarring and stiffening of the lungs, which makes it increasingly difficult to breathe over time. The cause of the disease is unknown.
Intermune Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Steven Porter said he was "very excited," by the meeting's outcome.
"I think it was a very productive discussion and the data spoke for itself," said Porter.
If approved, InterMune plans to market the drug in the U.S. under the name Esbriet. The drug was approved in Japan in October 2008, where it is sold under the name Pirespa by Shionogi and Co.
Shares of the Brisbane, Calif.-based company were halted in trading Tuesday ahead of the FDA's meeting. The stock closed at $23.30 Monday.
Last week shares jumped to their highest point since 2007 after the FDA posted its review of pirfenidone.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35783566/site/14081545/for/cnbc/
U.S. FDA Panel Backs InterMune Lung Drug:
Tue Mar 9, 2010 3:39pm EST
Final agency decision expected by May 4.
SILVER SPRING, Md., March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. medical advisers backed InterMune Inc's (ITMN.O) experimental drug to treat lung scarring on Tuesday, saying it should be approved for patients with the rare fatal condition.
In a 9-3 vote, the Food and Drug Administration's outside experts said the company's data were strong enough to support use of the drug, pirfenidone, for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
InterMune is seeking FDA approval of pirfenidone to help mitigate worsening lung function in patients with IPF, a fatal condition in which the lungs scar for no apparent cause.
Trading in shares of InterMune was halted ahead of the panel's vote.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0924859020100309
Key Facts on ITMN:
InterMune, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies in pulmonology and hepatology. Their only drug approved in the U.S. currently is Actimmune, which treats both CGD and severe, malignant osteopetrosis, two rare congenital disorders.
Pirfenidone is the only drug designed to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an unexplained inflammation and scarring of the lungs, which hinders the ability to process oxygen and causes shortness of breath. A progressive disease, symptoms increase in severity and usually result in death within two to five years of diagnosis.
200,000 people are affected by IPF in US and Europe; there are an estimated 30,000 new cases each year.
Pirfenidone is approved and marketed in Japan as Pirespa
FDA granted Fast Track/Priority Review status for the US New Drug Application (NDA) on January 4, 2010.
On Friday March 5, FDA posted a March 9 Review briefings document, signaling that prior criticisms of ITMN research may be alleviating.
Proposed U.S. name for pirfenidone is Esbriet.
Here is a screen shot from 2006 of a five day period of my Excel spread sheet that I do my daily accounting on after the closing bell rings. This was the year that I finally perfected my strategy, and my gains have improved dramatically since then. I had 13 winning trades for a total of $1786.27 and 5 losing trades of $523.04 for a total of $1263.23 in five sessions, which is a very good weekly income. Especially since I was usually done trading before lunchtime each day. Also notice that my losses were all around $100.00 except for the one that got away from me because it was moving so fast that by the time I sold it, it had cost me another $50.00 or five cents with 1K shares. This screen shot is too wide to fit onto this webpage, so click:
HERE (to view it in a new window)
It's also a good idea to find stocks that mirror the movements of the Exchange it's traded on. That makes it much easier to anticipate the next move of any stock. AKAM is real good about moving in tandem with the Nasdaq Composite's charts most of the time like these charts show. As you can see, this two and a half day time frame shows that AKAM moved nearly tick for tick with the Nasdaq.
These days, one of my favorite stocks to trade is TSO because it mirrors the movements of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's chart. I took a Short position when TSO broke below $10.21 this day, and forty-five minutes later I Covered my Short position one dollar lower and made nearly $1000.00
Day Trading doesn't rely as much on understanding the Fundamentals of a company you are trading like Swing Trading does. But you must keep up with the latest News Releases, and any recent Insider Buying or Selling. You must also know if any analysts that cover your favorite companies have given them an Upgrade or a Downgrade recently, or have changed their EPS estimates for the upcoming quarter or fiscal year. All of thing things can have an impact on the near-term movements of your favorite stocks.
An interesting time to Day Trade is when an Economic Report on the economy is released. This happens many times a week as this Economic Calendar shows: It very important to know what Economic Reports are to be released each day and at what time, especially when you Day Trade stocks that mirror the movements of the Nasdaq and the other indicies. That's because when one of these Economic Reports is released, the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P500 can move up or down a lot very quickly depending on how The Street views the Report. It's also important to learn which of these reports can have a bigger impact on the overall market when they are released. There is a lesson on this subject in these lessons.
It's essential to always have a program on your TV like CNBC at all times while Day Trading. World events and news from a company that is a Dow component can have a dramatic effect on the movements of the Stock Market during the course of a day. Day Traders look for these kinds of opportunities.
Learning that a Company has just received an Upgrade or Downgrade from the Wall Street Analysts that cover it, is a good reason for entering a Day Trade on that particular Stock. These kinds of trades playing Upgrades or Downgrades usually last all day, and can be played again the next day too.
Reporting Season is another great time of year to Day Trade. It comes four times each year when SEC regulations require that every company reports their earnings for the quarter and/or their fiscal year. When a company beats (or misses) the analyst's expectations for earnings per share and revenue, the stock can have some interesting and sometimes extremely volatile moves in a very short period of time. Most companies do not report earnings while the market is open, so you must have charting software that will show the charts moving in real-time during the pre-market and after-hours sessions. I do not recommend that novice traders attempt to trade Earnings Reports in the extended-hours sessions. But if you are an experienced trader, I can show you how to play these Earnings Reports.
As a rule, Day Trader's almost never hold a position overnight. Here is why I only Day Trade these days. Look at how the Dow dropped about 450 points in the last hours of this day's session. If you weren't watching the market all day, you would have been right back where it started at the low of the day at lunchtime. I like to ride it up going Long, and then go Short when the double-top chart pattern says to:
Day Trading is my favorite style of trading. When I Day Trade, I have four charts up for the particular Stock I am trading in four different time frames, and a one minute chart for the Exchange it trades on.
It is necessary to have more than one monitor hooked up to your computer. I have four monitors on mine. I combine elements from the Scottrader and the Fidelity Active Trader Pro trading platforms. The Fidelity charts are the best I've ever found, but the Watch List and Time and Sales windows aren't as good as the one's Scottrader has. Here is what my four monitor trading setup looks like. Be sure to click on the image to enlarge it to full size, and scroll far to the right to see the whole thing:
CLICK HERE:
If you don't have multiple monitors on your computer, here is the piece of hardware I have hooked up to mine that allows you to easily add two or three more monitors:
CLICK HERE:
I will show you how to Day Trade any stock of your choice (if it meets certain criteria) successfully using only three charts, a Level 2 window, and a Time and Sales window. And on these three charts you will only need to have four Technical Indicators that are the cornerstone of my strategy.
VIDEO CHARTS
Here is a video of a couple of trades I did on SSO last year. This is just one of the 28 videos that you get when you order the series of lessons I offer on Day Trading. That's 18 hours of videos to study, and I'll be adding many more to the lessons this year.