Is This The Long Awaited Pandemic?

[Magda Hassan]

Magda said:

What is known is that Donald Rumsfeld and others will be making a packet as they have shares in the pharmaceutical compnay, Gilead, that makes Tamiflu which is said to be the most effective drug against this strain.

Gilead Sciences, the benefactor of royalties from Tamiflu, has had some interesting insider stock transactions lately.

I was looking for some indication that insiders were betting that the stock was going to rise...

On April 14th, John C. Martin, the CEO, sold 100,000 shares of his company’s stock for almost USD 1.6 million and the same day bought 100,000 call options in the same stock.

http://www.secform4.com/filings/882095/0...006512.htm

The options expire on July 21, 2009.

On March 12th, he did the same thing, with the same amounts and the same expiration.

http://www.secform4.com/filings/882095/0...004884.htm

On February 12th he did the same thing.

http://www.secform4.com/filings/882095/0...002561.htm

January 15th, ditto.

http://www.secform4.com/filings/882095/0...001104.htm

August ’08, same with 70,000 shares. Then there was July…and June…

You may know that stock options are derivatives, and derivatives are MUCH riskier than buying the underlying security. But, you can make a much larger profit per your investment dollar in derivatives than you can in the stock itself. Investing in derivatives is a gambler’s game.

They've been cashing out- ready to pounce on the opportunity when their stock rises- and if it rises significantly before July 21, Mr. Martin and several others will be able to buy their shares back at guaranteed low rates, or sell the options themselves at a nice premium.

Thanks for this Bruce. Very interesting. It would be good to know what his previous form is like in buying and selling for comparison purposes. I wonder who else is doing similar things?