Turn my back for one second!

Well, well, well. I have been a bit indisposed recently and have not been watching the market with my usual obsessive, portfolio watching zeal. So I was shocked to see the recent gyrations (yes, I did type the word"gyration," (now twice)). The market was flapping around like a fish out of water. Lets see how I held up.

Since the end of october, the S&P index has lost 250 points, or about 16.1% of its value. My portfolio, on the other hand has dropped only 5.8%, excluding dividends and taxes, but including commisions. What is the reason? Basically, the Sam Adams buy, a la How to Make Money in Stocks, was a big winner. Also, the ultrashort QQQ ETF which rises when the S&P drops, bought after reading Hedgehogging, went up.

All the others went nowhere other than down to varying degrees. The biggest loser so far has been TBSI international limited, a la The Little Book That Makes You Rich. I guess the title is a bit of a misnomer.

Here's the rundown:

Symbol	Name	Type	Date	Shares	Price		Notes
WAG	Walgreen Company	Buy	Oct 30, 2007	10.00	39.45		Rule #1
SAM	The Boston Beer Company, Inc.	Buy	Nov 16, 2007	15.00	34.44		How to Make money in Stocks
ASR	Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste...	Buy	Nov 26, 2007	10.00	54.89		Random Walk
WBC	WABCO Holdings Inc.	Buy	Dec 3, 2007	12.00	46.36		Buffettology
IOO	iShares S&P Global 100 Index...	Buy	Nov 5, 2007	6.00	82.92		Future of Investors
ICFI	ICF International, Inc.	Buy	Dec 10, 2007	20.00	26.00		Little Book that Beats the Market
WFR	MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.	Buy	Jan 3, 2008	6.00	88.00		Invest Like a Shark
WFR	MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.	Sell	Jan 7, 2008	6.00	80.20		Invest Like a Shark
STMP	Stamps.com Inc.	Buy	Jan 23, 2008	50.00	10.80		Dhandho Investor
QID	UltraShort QQQ ProShares (ETF)	Buy	Jan 31, 2008	10.00	51.30		Hedgehogging
TBSI	TBS International Limited	Buy	Feb 19, 2008	10.00	38.17		The Little Book that Makes You Rich

Hot Stock Tip!

OK, so this is a bit off the usual post for this blog. One of my side projects while learning about the market is to focus on the "neurosciences" and the stock market. Now, a warning. I have no experience making investment recommendations etc, and I lost money recently (but not as much as the overall market). So, follow at your own risk.

A uncommon disease called myasthenia gravis affects less than 100,000 people per year in the US. It is caused by the inability of proper muscle contraction by antibodies to the muscle end-plate acetylcholine receptors. Learn more about it here. A common treatment is to give medications that inhibit the breakdown of neurotransmitters that act on the receptors, but it has numerous side effects, has to be taken multiople times per day, and so on.

However, there is a new drug that has great promise. This drug has the ability to inhibit the production of acetylcholinesterase which decreases the breakdown of the acetylcholine neurotransmitters using antisense oligonucleotide technology, which is really cool. Essentially these snippits of DNA can inhibit the gene transcription, or production, of acetylcholinesterase.

A U.K. company called Amarin, AMRN, which has been having some problems lately (delisting, turnover of management, and failed drug for huntington's disease, amongst others), has bought the rights to this drug from a Israeli company called Ester Pharmaceuticals. So what is the big deal? Well, hold on to your pants. The same acetylcholine neurotransmitter and receptor interaction is seen in the brain. And of two treatments for Alzheimer's currently being used (anticholinergic and antiglutaminergic), there is a wealth of information that supports increasing acetylcholine activity delays the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Yeah, that's right. This drug that is currently being used and is approved by the FDA for myasthenia gravis could potentially treat Alzheimer's disease, which affects millions. The numbers boggle the mind.

So far, I don't see much evidence that anyone has thought this through to the logical conclusion. Again, I cannot stress enough that this blog post is all about speculation. The drug may not work due to lots of factors, but once the idea has spread though to the market, I think it will take off. I will pick up a few shares, and see if it pans out.

:)