Intra-Cellular Therapies (“ITCI”) Stock Soars While Key Clinical Data Not Presented to Shareholders Looks Highly Disappointing

(July 15th, 2015) Biotech stocks have been on fire. And for good reason as numerous life-saving discoveries have come out of small, previously-unknown firms, making their owners rich many times over. But beneath the surface, a number of troubling drug development companies have caught the attention of investors with clinical data that’s dubious at best. With seemingly endless amounts of optimism, these biotech stocks have ridden the wave of investor enthusiam even when the data doesn’t look as promising as the market caps seem to indicate.

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All You Ever Wanted to Know About Retrophin But Were Afraid to Ask

(June 2nd, 2014) Humans, like atoms, abhor unsteady states of existence. Just like electron transport gravitates towards a steady-state, people gravitate towards peaceful lands and away from battleground areas. Read more

Know What to Buy When Putin Comes Knocking

So Putin rolls a bunch of tanks up to the Ukrainian border and the market slides a percent or so. In any other market that would be considered a yawn. But here in the good ‘ol US of A, where the average active investor can barely remember the dog days of ’08, few traders seem to have the skill set necessary to maneuver in a down market. Having done this for 20+ years, I thought it would be helpful to share my trading tips for when war comes knocking.
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Zachary Prensky started his career in the early-90s by founding a software company originally run out of his NYC-college dorm room. After a short detour as a controller of a mid-size NYC-based catering firm, in 1997 Zachary returned to his roots by working with, and raising funds for, local technology startups. Over the next 3 years he  was integral in accerating the growth of a number of 1990s success stories, notably AB Watley (an online brokerage firm), Register.com (domain name registrar) and GoAmerica Communications (the first local firm to offer RIMM Blackberry service).

 

After observing the dot-com bust in the early 2000s Zachary set his sites on picking through the rubble and acquiring stakes in a number of down, but not necessarily out, technology investments. He renamed his firm Little Bear Investments and led a successful syndicate of investors who purchased the largest (at the time) VC-backed bankruptcy sale of of minority internet investments (Divine Interventures, in mid-2003). Scooping up stakes of future success stories such as PeopleSupport & ComScore, Zachary and his partners spent much of the decade working with his portfolio companies to ultimately realize their value in the public markets.

 

Today Little Bear focuses most of its’ attention on a portfolio of special situations. Lately, the firm’s focus has been on a number of distressed situations, both public and private, as well as working with fellow researchers in uncovering fraudulent activity amoungst Nasdaq- and NYSE- listed highflyers.

 

Zachary lives with his two boys on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and is involved in a number of non-profit organizations, both locally and abroad. His boys are big NY Rangers fans, and you can often find the three of them on winter weekday nights cheering on their favorite Broadway Blueshirts.

 

” Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration. ” Andrew Carnegie