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Peter is one of five online investors profiled:
forbes.com
Page 2 of 3 from Desert Blooms
Adam Leitzes and Joshua Solan, with Ben Berentson, Best of The Web, 12.03.01
Peter Suzman
Site: www.SiliconInvestor.com
Location: Newton, Mass.
As a Harvard Law graduate and the founder of a company that constructs and administers stock-option plans for public companies, Peter Suzman is not your typical Internet message board participant. He's also not your typical biotech stock expert. Suzman has emerged as a leader on community-investment site Silicon Investor, where he has contributed thousands of messages on the subject of biotechnology. Says Suzman, "This is the century when many, if not most, common diseases will be cured or controlled."
Biotech is perfectly suited to Suzman's long-term buy-and-hold strategy. "One unusual aspect of the drug industry is that things happen very slowly, so you can analyze many years ahead," explains Suzman. "One knows the universe of new drugs that might be approved over the next five years, and also when every existing drug is going off patent." Of course, many biotech stocks plummet when drugs they are backing fail. Suzman alleviates the impact of such occurrences with a diversified portfolio of biotech stocks.
With more than 90% of his portfolio invested in biotech, Suzman devotes hours to reading annual and quarterly reports of biotech companies, health care conference proceedings, medical journal articles and clinical trial results. He also utilizes Silicon Investor to query industry scientists, all of whom disguise their identities with pseudonyms. Suzman claims his strategy has generated annual returns in excess of 60% in 1998, 1999 and 2000. This year, however, Suzman is down 10% so far.
Favorite Stocks: Sepracor (nasdaq: SEPR - news - people). "The best short- and medium-term pipeline in biotech. SEPR makes patented improvements in existing drugs, which is a lot less risky than developing brand-new drugs." He also likes Intermune (nasdaq: ITMN - news - people) and Aviron (nasdaq: AVIR - news - people). |
