TRADE INSTRUCTIONS
Date: September 20, 2017
Name: United Therapeutics
Symbol: UTHR
Type: Close
Limit: Sell at market              

TRADE RATIONALE
UTHR closed beneath my stop loss price of $118.00 yesterday, so by rule I must close out this position and remove it from our portfolio. The stock dropped two weeks ago after the release of what appeared to be a fairly innocuous press release stating that its IDMC (Independent Data Monitoring Committee) approved the continuation of its stage-3 trial of Orenitram. In theory, that should be good news since the successful completion of the trial would most likely result in eventual commercialization of the drug. But in this case it seems that the fact the IDMC did not see fit to recommend terminating the trial and go straight to commercialization was a disappoint to at least one of its institutional investors. The day after this report was released trading volume in UTHR was six times its daily average but has been at normal levels since then, so it appears this is not a case of a short-selling scheme or any other nefarious activity. Although we must sell it, the argument for holding UTHR longer term is still in play, especially given recent M&A activity in the biotech sector so you may want to move this holding over to your “next year” portfolio and wait to see how this trial turns out