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Biotech / Medical : IMNR - Immune Response -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (1168)	11/18/1998 8:48:00 AM
From: poodle	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1510

MJ, Not sure about education, but let's try our common sense. Insider selling is never good. Is it bad sign? Not necessarily. Insiders are also people and have to support their families, buy houses etc. Finally, if you have 500K $ on the market it is logical not to have it in one stock, even if it's "your" Co. I wouldn't consider sporadic Ins selling as an extremely bad info. Dilution for restricted shares you could calculate before based on options granted. When MANY TOP insiders are selling at about the same time this is not a good sign. The idea that insiders would fill 144 and not sell seems to be rather wishful thinking. Sometimes it may happen, but not too often. Why to fill anything and to make investors nervous if you are not willing to sell? Another idea, that insiders would sell 3 mos after 144, is coming from another, probably much better, world. Theoretically, they CAN sell during 90 days. Practically, the rule of the game is to SELL HIGH. Ins selling is a warning sign for stockholders and shortsellers. May be to warn them is a very good and honest thing to do, but Insiders will have to sell at lower price after all. Be sure that Ins selling is heavily monitored. Ins selling in this case is warning sign, not more, but not less. I am making my decisions based on fundamentals, but this is an old fashion and may not be useful during mad cow market. For startup biotech TECHNOLOGY is the main factor to consider. There are many other, finan., patents, mngt etc. If you can explain, for example, how antibodies against proteins located insde the virus can affect viral activity, than you are in the right place. Have a nice day.

To: MJ who wrote (1168)	11/18/1998 8:49:00 AM
From: John S. Baker	Respond to of 1510

Opinion: I value Insider Buys as much more valuable indicators than Insider Sells. There are lots of reasons why someone might sell, and not all indicate a dissatisfaction with the stock: orthodontist bills, retirement, new roof, college expenses, divorce, new Ferrari, etc. But there is only one reason someone buys shares and that is because he wants them more than he wants the cash. So, I tend not to read as much into "Sells" as I do "Buys". Having said that, I cannot at this point venture a guess about what is in the minds of any specific Form 144 prospective sellers. It could be that they want to be free to sell the shares when they balloon very soon because things are going well -- bullish for us. Or that they have some tax losses which exceed the amount which can be offset against existing gains, so they need to generate some gains in order to be able to use those tax losses this year (instead of carrying them forward) -- neutral to slightly bearish for us. Or, based on what they know, they are just sure that there is enough bad news coming that the stock will tank, and so they want out -- bearish for us. Another factor to consider is whether each individual has a history of selling (in which case one single filing is not too bad), how close to the management the seller is, what his basis is, and how many shares he retains after any possible sale. For instance, Bill Gates sells Microsoft stock virtually every month, and most people do not consider that to be a bad signal. JSb.