Trading SMID biotech stocks is difficult  no matter what you know.

Large cap biopharma with dividends should be the focus for non-traders e.g. ABBV, LLY REGN.

Healthcare and smaller caps are lagging within the context of a broader market where technology rules.

 depositphotos We started this project about a year ago with the objective of finding long term winners and using MOMENTUM and technicals as a guide. Most of these companies have analyst coverage and adequate short term cash positions so you are not dealing with “penny stocks” given that the markets caps are at the $B+ level. But these stocks are extremely volatile given that they lack reliable earnings metrics hence are speculative. But if you have any knowledge of the industry and pick a few to follow you did have good chance for big wins. But one lesson is to cut losses on big drops caused by disappointing news like clinical trial failures. This is not a “buy and hold” list but for traders and should be followed through Yahoo Finance or Seeking Alpha.Since they are speculative stocks one should don’t have more than 5-7% within a healthcare portfolio as a total dollar investment. My biggest % winning trades YTD were: GERN ,NVAX, TWST, and VCEL. My worst losing trades were: CYRX, QDEL and PACB. (A (-) means no trading yet in this stock. L =loss, $ =gains)The following stocks are still long (H) in my Biotechnology Portfolio: ABOS, ADPT, RNA, CPRX, CRMD, CRSP, GERN, IMTX, NTRA, NVAX, SUPN, VCEL, VCYT.Some trading guidelines that we have covered many times in the past:

SMID stocks track the XBI well. It is difficult to make money on smaller caps without help from the FUNDS like the XBI. The ARKG is an even bigger MOMENTUM indicator and as you can see it is down 28% YTD.

in broader biotech bull markets ETFs lie the IBB does well. It is barely up 1% YTD.

Volatility has been huge even for winning trades so a “day-trading ” tactic would have yielded better returns for stocks like;  CRMD,CYTK, NVAX. and f course the XBI.

Cut losses quickly on momentum shifts.

The last raging bull biotech market was 2021/2022 as it was catalyzed by the pandemic. There is nothing like the MOMENTUM and gains achieved by Communication  Tecnology and Semiconductor stocks over the past 5 years. See chart below when the XBI hit $170 in Jan 2021. 

    P 1/20/23 % Perf 2/4/23   12/24/23       4/8/24   6/30/24         Company Ticker $   P       YTD %     YTD   %YTD %MTD trade               P       P % P H1 ’24                                         Acumen Therap ABOS     5.29   3.57   -33.89   3.17 -17.45 2.42 -37 -25.54 H   Adaptive BiioTech ADPT     4.11   5       2.6 -46.94 3.62 -26.12 -0.82 H,$   Avidity Sciences RNA new               25   40.85 35.81 55.21 H   Catalyst Pharma CPRX     16.1   16.58   -10.86   14.89 11.42 15.49 -7.85 -6.52 H   Caribou Biosci CRBU     6.29   6.17   -0.175   3.71 -35.25 1.64 -71.38 -45.15 S,$   CorMedix CRMD         3.9       5.31 41.22 4.33 15.1 -19.22 H,$   Crenetics CRNX                 42.12 18.38 44.79 25.89 -4.42 –   CRSPR Therap CRSP 49.61 -25 55.27   63.67   56.63   53.91 -13.88 54.01 -13.72 -1.51 H   Cryoport CYRX 21.75 -42.34 25.24   16.09   -7.26   16.38 5.75 6.91 -55.39 -37.86 S,L   Cytokinetics CYTK         31       65.34 -21.74 54.18 -35.11 12.38 –   Denali DNLI     22           19.21 -9 23.22 8.2 22.86 –   Exelixis EXEL     22.25           23.75 -1.21 22.47 -6.34 10.47 –   Evolent Health EVH 30.83 13.74 31.96   32.08   14.25   27.65 -16.29 19.12 -42.11 -17.19 S,L   Geron GERN 3.19 9.24 3.22   2.29   -5.37   3.79 79.62 4.24 100.95 25.57 S,H,$                                     Intelllia NTLA new               25.5   22.38 -26.6 -1.5 –   Immatics IMTX     9.3   9.9   13.66   10 -4.94 11.62 10.35 (0,43) H   Natera NTRA         60       91.66 46.33 108.27 72.88 -1.17 H,$   Pacific Biosci PACB 11.29 55.68 11.58   8.59   5   1.47 -85 1.37 -86.03 -27.13 S,L   Novavax NVAX                 3.67 – 12.6 163.75 -18.43 S,H,$                                     Recursion Pharm RXRX         10.75       8.12 -17.65 7.5 -23.94 -16.57 S,$   Roivant ROIV         11.4       11.03 -1.78 10.57 -5.88 -2.4 –   Supernus SUPN 40.3 12.3 41.61   29.23   -18.05   30.07 3.9 26.75 -7.57 -1.18 H   Twist Biosci TWST     18   3.76   34.03   31.54 -14.53 49.28 33.7 16.12 S,H,$   10x Genomics TXG     47.84   56.58   55.27   27.59 -50.79 19.45 -65.24 -14.22 S,$                           17.18         Vericel VCEL     31   34.75   31.93   46.05 29.32 45.88 28.84 -4.39 H   Veracyte VCYT 24.89 39.43 26.67   28.27   19.13   19.31 -29.81 21.67 (21,23) 1.03 H                                     SPDR Biotech XBI 86.99 14.75 90.39   87.62   5.57   83.49 -6.51 92.71 3.83 4.02 –   iShares BIO IBB         133.77   -1.89   132.51 -2.48 137.26 1.04 2.37 –   HealthcareSPDR XLV         135.02   –   143.22 5.02 145.75 6.87 2.16 –                                     wildcard                                 ArkGenomics ARKG     35.28   32.81   16.22   23.18 -29.35 23.48 -28.44 -8.6 –                                  

 More By This Author:Healthcare And Biotech Investing: Breakthroughs In The Treatment Of Cancer At ASCOLarge Cap BIopharmaceuticals OverviewLarge Cap Biopharmaceuticals Performance