In the past, I have been afraid of the biotechnology industry and stayed away from the stocks of its companies, but recently I read an article about MannKind (MNKD), a company that has developed a drug named Afrezza that functions very similarly to a healthy pancreas. This article informed me about MannKind, but it also got me very interested in the speculative possibilities of biotech stocks in general. I am rather risk averse but have found a method that I think any person can use, no matter what their risk tolerance, to speculate on a stock while still keeping their money relatively safe.

How a drug comes to market

The path a drug must take to make it to market in the U.S. is both long and expensive, on average taking approximately 12 years and $500 to $800 million to get a drug from development to market. Listed below

Comcast (CMCSA) has been at the forefront of the minds of many investors for a variety of reasons recently. The stock price has been climbing at an astoundingly fast rate - it has just about doubled over the past fifteen months, from $21 in November 2011 to $41 last week. The long-term price trend is a result of Comcast's overall business, while the recent bump up in the stock price came from Comcast's announcement on February 12th that it would be purchasing the remaining 49% ownership stake of NBCUniversal from General Electric (GE) well ahead of schedule. According to the statement on Comcast's website, this acquisition "solidifies Comcast's position as a leading media and technology company." It also brings Comcast even farther down the road to being Disney's (DIS) biggest competitor. What does this mean for the company's future and for investors who want to be a part of

By now, most investors know about the Dell (DELL) LBO, but let's quickly recap. On February 6th, Dell filed a Form 8-K to announce that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired by Michael Dell, founder of Dell, and Silver Lake Partners, a California based private equity firm. The deal values Dell at $24.4 billion with a per share price of $13.65, a 25% premium over the close of $11.83 on January 11th, the day before the rumors leaked. The deal is set to close in the second quarter of 2014-that is, if shareholders are convinced that it's in their best interest. So far, a lot of the larger shareholders don't feel that it is.

Most notably showing its concern is Southeastern Asset Management, an 8.5% beneficial owner of the company. Southeastern said in a letter to Dell's Board of Directors on February 8th that

How did Apple's (AAPL) market cap drop from $656 billion to $446 billion in less than five months? Is the company really worth $200 billion less now than it was on September 19th? Were $200 billion worth of Apple assets destroyed in some sort of unseen natural disaster? Highly unlikely. Then what happened? Many attribute it to the iPhone 5, which has been called an evolution rather than a revolution. This could be, but is the price tag of innovation really $200 billion? Is innovation at Apple no more? Or is there still hope for this company that just last year made Exxon Mobil's (XOM) market cap look like Monopoly money? Will Apple ever again have a market share of more than $600 billion? These many questions comprise the $200 billion question. This article will look at three things: where the money went, why it went there,

Unless you live in a galaxy far, far away, you probably know by now that Disney (DIS) has acquired the rights to most of the Star Wars franchise through the purchase of LucasArts, Lucasfilms, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound. You may have also heard that the White House has rejected a petition to begin construction on the Death Star, which, unfortunately for Disney, means they won't be able to sell the plans to the federal government for big bucks. Fear not though, unlike the Death Star, Disney cannot be destroyed by a statement from the White House nor a Jedi in an X-Wing. They may have paid $4.05 billion in shares and cash to acquire the company and the franchise, but the price does not matter, it's the return that matters. Disney clearly had the capital to pull this off with relative ease, now the question is whether

Ever since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in 2008, people have become increasingly wary of big banks. Some have acted on this fear by taking to the streets and protesting, hence the Occupy Wall Street movement. The small banks have already shown that they know how to use the public's anxiety to their benefit with bumper stickers that say things like "Don't blame me, I bank locally" and ads that poke fun at Bank of America (BAC) for their exorbitant fees and lack of personalized customer service.

An example that comes to mind is United Financial Bancorp (UBNK), who, in 2009, marketed their employees as "personal bankers" to help customers feel more comfortable about banking with them. As the general public grows more and more anxious, they vote into office representatives who share their opinion and can act on it. We have already seen Bank of America and

The biggest question in every investor's mind when they see a stock with an uncharacteristically low price is just that, "bargain or bust?" You want to buy it because it looks dirt cheap, but you want your dirt to turn into gold, not dust. In our economy today, many companies out there have stock that places you in just this position. J. C. Penney (JCP), closing at just over $18 per share on Friday, is definitely one of those companies.

CEO Ron Johnson has been vilified and applauded for his plan to turn J.C. Penney into every American's favorite store. His plan basically involves changing everything Americans have known about J.C. Penney and indeed most stores in general. We as Americans love sales, we love seeing the price we're actually paying next to the price it would have cost us had we paid full price. Mr. Johnson wants to simplify