Don't consider investing in IONS now, it is risky at the moment
13 Dec, 201813 min read
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IONIS PHARMACEUTICALS INC delivered massive losses on Thursday. It returned -4.81% to close at 53.47. On a day when the overall market breadth was 35%, it closed higher than 11% of the market. In comparison, the benchmark SP500 index closed today at -0.0002%.
IONS showed a strong up trend over the last 3 months. During this period IONS returned +10.96% and saw a maximum drawdown of -16.16%. There was a long signal during this period which returned +10.96%.
IONS has been outperforming the SP500 index in recent time. Over the last 2 years 11 months and 9 days, IONS underperformed the SP500 index on 45% days. Which indicates that on days IONS underperforms the SP500 index, it's performance is marginally worse than on the days it outperforms the SP500 index.
During the last three months IONS was mostly profitable and delivered on average +0.21% per day. It's best return during this period (of +5.23%) was on Tuesday, 16 Oct, 2018. While it's worst loss in the same period (of -7.65%) was on Monday, 8 Oct, 2018. There was initially a bullish trend during this period which started on 17 Sep, 2018 and went on till 20 Sep, 2018. The bullish trend returned +5.33% to investors. This was followed by a bearish trend that started on 28 Sep, 2018 and ended on 4 Oct, 2018. This bearish trend lost -8.47% of investor capital.
On monthly basis, IONS delivered profits in more months over the last year, than losses. IONS delivered profits less regularly than SP500 index. IONS significantly outperformed SP500 index in Nov 2018, when it returned +17.64% compared to +4.75% returned by SP500 index during it's best month in the last one year - Jan 2018. IONS had a shorter streak of profitable months than SP500 index. It only went up in 3 straight months during the last year.
"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
IONS is becoming more volatile overall. In comparison, the SP500 index is seeing a rise in volatility. During the last three months, there was a significant surge in IONS's volatility from 28 Sep, 2018 to 24 Oct, 2018. While there was a significant surge in the SP500 index's volatility from 25 Sep, 2018 to 29 Oct, 2018.
Advanced/professional short-term investors should note that IONS has negative skewness in it's return distribution. This indicates that investors may need to stay invested through long periods of drawdown before expecting a recovery.
Investors trading in IONS derivatives at this moment can consider 'Covered Call' options strategy to receive better risk-adjusted returns.
SP500 index has more chance of extreme outcomes than IONS. Therefore, SP500 must receive a lower allocation than IONS in your portfolio. SP500 index usually has shorter drawdown period than IONS.
Based on your interest in IONS you may find it interesting to know that VIPS is highly volatile and investors investing in it must take extreme caution. Consider either reducing your exposure to VIPS or sufficiently diversifying your portfolio.
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