Contrary Indications

Last night was the lowest point yet, after I sketched out my tax situation. It took an episode of 'Family Guy' and my beloved's flute playing to get me to sleep. I bought a stock in early 2004 in a company called Hollis-Eden Pharmecuticals (NasdaqNM: HEPH). At that time, my investment in Vical, Inc (NasdaqNM: VICL), had almost doubled. I figured my luck at picking development-stage biotech companies was excellent. Should have put it all into Genentech, Inc (NYSE: DNA).

HEPH seemed to go down every day. That's how I developed a rule about these type companies. They are starved for news, and the stock will go down every day that passes without some. Time is, in effect, their enemy. In my world of fear and paranoia, I was betting that there would be some terrorist attack. At least the government would buy stockpiles of Neumuene or whatever. Look at the drug Cipro.

I sold HEPH this spring for a huge loss. The problem is that I sold one day before it would have been classified as a long-term capital loss. If I had sold one day later, I could have wiped out all the long-term gains on Cisco and Vical. Instead, the stock went up twenty cents the next day and I chased my shares back! Now that trade is lumped in with all the other short-term gains and losses. There are NO short losses to offset my long-term gains. Son of a CPA, maybe I should just put my money into a 3 month CD so I can use it, probably all of it, to pay taxes. Jackass.