Well, March (and the last 4 days of this Leap Year February) roared in (out) like a lion. New records for the broader indices, the NASDAQ Composite Index up +1.7% for the week, and if the NASDAQ biotech index was sort of “meh” (+0.5%), the S&P biotech index, on the other hand boomed by +7.3% for the week, ending up +14% for YTD, outstripping the NASDAQ Composite's +8.4% YTD.
The big news for the week was the +$260% jump in VKTX, due to their announcement of positive Top-Line Results from a Phase 2 study of an anti-obesity drug (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/viking-therapeutics-announces-positive-top-120300339.html) to challenge the products of Lily and Novo Nordiisc, which triggered a ton of coverage in the financial press, and the announcement of a public offering of half a billion dollars worth at $85 a share, expected to close next Monday. VKTX has had a generally good year so far, yielding a YTD return of +350%, the number one selection in the contest.
Second place PYXS (+96% for the week), had a private placement to institutional investors worth $50 million, gross proceeds, at $4.78 a share, a discount of 27% of the weekly closing price. This resulted in a third place YTD return of +266%.
Third place CRDF jumped +84%, most of it on Friday after releasing Q4 and Annual financials that beat expectations.
Fourth place VINC (+64%) continued its rise from the previous week, again without any particular news, which allowed it to keep just ahead of PYXS as the number two issue in YTD returns, +267%.
And GTHX’s announcement of annual and Q4 earnings on Wednesday produced three days of general gains, and a fifth place in the weekly return of +50%.
On this week’s losing issues: bottom of the heap NERV (-69% of their initial price) had an FDA rejection of their schizophrenia drug, endorsing the agenda reviewers’ objections. Adding this to the previous week’s loss from the market’s treatment of their Q4/Annual financials, and now NERV is the second worst YTD performer (-57%).
The next four losers for the week were bad, but far from catastrophic. LRMR dropped -17%, which could be considered profit taking from the big jump of two week’s ago in response to a successful public offering, not enough to drop them from the top five YTD performers, +150%. KZIA was the fourth worst performer both for the week (-12%) and on the YTD list (-42%). And in the fifth worst spot, GRTS (-9.8%) announced a 40% reduction in workforce required by not receiving some expected external funding due to the delay in the initiation of a Phase 2b study.
If this was a good week for the S&P biotech index, it was a great week for the contestants, an average gain of +$14.5k, so that the YTD average portfolio is now +$30k in the black. Only one portfolio was in the red for the week, and that only by a loss of -$132.76, pushing the number of YTD profitable portfolios up to fourteen out of seventeen! That VKTX was selected by four different portfolios may have had something to do with this, those portfolios becoming the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th top performers for the week. In first, BULBAMAN’s 15% bet on VKTX was responsible for almost the entirety of their weekly gain of $40k. In second RAJU_BIJLEE took a more conservative 10% position in VKTX, but received an additional boost by positive gains in every other of their choices for a net gain of +$37k. Both of them moved past ERIKOTTO to take the one-two positions in the YTD standings, (+$87k and +$74k) with a gap of $13k between the top two. (ERIKOTTO is only an additional $300 further behind). The remaining two VKTX holders, TECHNETIUM (+$32k) and DEW_DILIGENCE (+$24k) also improved their YTD positions by one place to fifth (+$54k) and seventh (+$35k) respectively.
Report Time Ranges
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From
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To
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Recent
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2/23/24
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3/1/24
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YTD
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12/31/2023
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Index Portfolios’ Performance
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Symbol
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Recent P/L
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Recent %
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YTD P/L
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^IXIC
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$1,852.72
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1.7%
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$8,417.55
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^NBI
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$563.95
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0.5%
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$3,309.31
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^SPSIBI
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$7,748.21
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7.3%
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$13,822.43
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Share Performance
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Recent Performance
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YTD Performance
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Top Five
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Bottom Five
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Top Five
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Bottom 5
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Symbol
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P/L / Initial Price
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Symbol
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P/L / Initial Price
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Symbol
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YTD P/L / Initial Price
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Symbol
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YTD P/L/ Initial Price
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VKTX
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256.9%
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NERV
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-68.9%
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VKTX
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351.5%
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CNSP
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-75.6%
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PYXS
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96.1%
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LRMR
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-16.9%
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VINC
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266.9%
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NERV
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-57.2%
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CRDF
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83.8%
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TERN
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-12.6%
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PYXS
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266.1%
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PACB
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-47.1%
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VINC
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63.6%
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KZIA
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-11.6%
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JSPR
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179.8%
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KZIA
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-41.5%
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GTHX
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49.5%
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GRTS
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-9.8%
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LRMR
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149.5%
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ONT.L
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-37.9%
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Average and Median Portfolio Performance
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Recent P/L
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YTD P/L
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Avg.
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Median
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Avg
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Median
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$14,493.29
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$12,116.18
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TOMATO
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$29,598.16
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$24,652.53
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TRACE I11
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Top Seven Portfolio Performances
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Top Recent Performers
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Top YTD Performers
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Contestant (Prev. Rank)
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Recent P/L
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P/L vs. ^SPSIBI
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YTD P/L (Rank)
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Contestant (Prev. Rank)
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YTD P/L
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vs. Top Portfolio
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P/L vs. ^SPSIBI
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Rec. P/L (Rank)
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1 - BULBAMAN (11)
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$40,154.45
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$32,406.24
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$86,882.00 (1)
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1 - BULBAMAN (2)
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$86,882.00
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——
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$73,059.57
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$40,154.45 (1)
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2 - RAJU_BIJLEE (2)
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$36,807.38
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$29,059.17
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$73,891.88 (2)
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2 - RAJU_BIJLEE (3)
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$73,891.88
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$12,990.12
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$60,069.45
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$36,807.38 (2)
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3 - TECHNETIUM (3)
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$31,641.96
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$23,893.76
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$54,515.98 (5)
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3 - ERIKOTTO (1)
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$73,581.66
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$13,300.34
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$59,759.23
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$12,137.02 (8)
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4 - BLADERUNNER (1)
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$25,135.25
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$17,387.04
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$61,074.47 (4)
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4 - BLADERUNNER (4)
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$61,074.47
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$25,807.53
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$47,252.05
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$25,135.25 (4)
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5 - DEW_DILIGENCE (6)
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$23,574.80
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$15,826.59
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$35,341.06 (7)
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5 - TECHNETIUM (6)
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$54,515.98
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$32,366.02
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$40,693.55
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$31,641.96 (3)
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6 - TRACE I11 (5)
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$19,504.97
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$11,756.76
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$24,652.53 (9)
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6 - TOMATO (5)
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$44,580.53
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$42,301.47
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$30,758.10
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$12,116.18 (9)
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7 - ARTHUR RADLEY (16)
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$12,382.81
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$4,634.60
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$20,256.81 (10)
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7 - DEW_DILIGENCE (8)
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$35,341.06
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$51,540.94
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$21,518.63
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$23,574.80 (5)
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8 - ERIKOTTO (13)
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$12,137.02
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$4,388.81
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$73,581.66 (3)
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8 - JR_95 (7)
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$28,311.87
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$58,570.13
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$14,489.45
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$9,008.22 (11)
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Top Portfolios’ Contents
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Second Place Recent Performance Portfolio (RAJU_BIJLEE)
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Top YTD Performance Portfolio (BULBAMAN)
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Symbol (Rank)
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Initial Allocation
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Value/Total | ROI
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YTD Stock P/L
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Recent Stock P/L
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% Current Price Change for $1,000 P/L
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Symbol (Rank)
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Initial Allocation
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Value/Total | ROI
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YTD Stock P/L
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Recent Stock P/L
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% Current Price Change for $1,000 P/L
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ALLO
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10.00%
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8.8% | 53.9%
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$5,389.41
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$1,246.11
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6.5%
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CU6.AX
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20.00%
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14.5% | 35.6%
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$7,125.80
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$954.33
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3.7%
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ALT
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10.00%
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6.2% | 7.5%
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$746.67
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$2,568.89
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9.3%
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CYTH
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10.00%
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5.4% | 1.3%
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$125.79
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-$880.50
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9.9%
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ARDX
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10.00%
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8.7% | 50.6%
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$5,064.52
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$1,064.52
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6.6%
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LRMR
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10.00%
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13.3% | 149.5%
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$14,945.05
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-$1,692.31
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4.0%
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CBUS
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10.00%
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5.3% | -8.4%
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-$840.12
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$147.66
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10.9%
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PMN
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10.00%
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9.7% | 81.7%
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$8,173.91
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$86.96
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5.5%
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GLYC
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10.00%
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7.3% | 27.5%
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$2,754.24
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$466.10
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7.8%
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SNGX
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10.00%
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5.4% | 0.8%
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$78.95
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-$13.16
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9.9%
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IMTX
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10.00%
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7.1% | 22.9%
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$2,288.70
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$683.76
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8.1%
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TCON
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10.00%
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5.7% | 7.4%
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$736.72
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$1,250.71
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9.3%
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IOVA
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10.00%
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11.9% | 106.5%
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$10,651.91
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$1,254.61
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4.8%
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TLX.AX
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15.00%
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9.1% | 13.4%
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$2,006.90
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$1,920.74
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5.9%
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OCUL
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10.00%
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13.9% | 141.0%
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$14,103.14
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$1,995.52
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4.1%
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VKTX
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15.00%
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36.8% | 357.9%
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$53,688.88
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$38,527.67
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1.5%
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RVNC
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10.00%
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4.6% | -20.6%
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-$2,059.16
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$1,695.11
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12.6%
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VKTX
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10.00%
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26.3% | 357.9%
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$35,792.58
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$25,685.12
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2.2%
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