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Showing posts from October, 2017

One Way to Play the Dip in Big Pharma...

IT COULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED TO A NICER GUY Big pharma stocks have been taking it in the shins over the past few days as many of the industry's biggest names are breaking down in the wake of changing healthcare legislation and increasing scrutiny of highly addictive opioids.  The general public will have little sympathy for bludgeoning, however.  The industry is so unpopular that a 2016 Gallup Poll showed its image had the worst net-positive rating in the 16 year history of the study. A quick glance shows that Merck (MRK), Celgene (CELG), Gilead (GILD), BioMarin (BMRN) are some of the names showing symptoms of fatigue, difficulty breathing, vertigo, unprovoked bleeding, temporary blindness, depression and suicidal thoughts (it's almost as if they're using their own products)... As one would expect, the dramatic moves (some as big as 10 ATRs in 5 days) have been accompanied by corollary spikes in implied volatility.  The November ATM puts for Merck are currently being price