The time was right a couple of days ago to invest in BNTX shares again for Lyons Cub, when their price hovered at a low $246. I tried right from the beginning to give him a good start into a financially secure future, so I invested in different stocks I strongly believe in, such as in four different lithium harvesting companies (Albemarle, Orocobre, Lithium Americas Company, and Vulcan). Lithium is an important component in batteries, and since electrical cars are on the rise, so will be the demand for lithium.
Health care stocks are really a no-brainer during a pandemic, and since I’m German, I am supporting the German company from the city of Mainz, BioNTech. Together with their partner Pfizer from the U.S., they have what I personally think is the most potent and reliable Covid19 vaccine currently on the market. (Almost my whole family is vaccinated with Cominarty, as the BNTX vaccine is called. And we are planning to get the booster shots, too.) The leaders of BioNTech are Uğur Şahin and his wife Özlem Türeci. Coincidentally, Dr. Türeci is a private docent at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, which is my alma mater (although I received my doctorate from the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies in Germersheim, which is about 105 km away from Mainz).
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, “Cominarty” is a neologism coined from these words:
"With official FDA approval, the company was allowed to start marketing the vaccine with an official name, Comirnaty. Pronounced koe-mir'na-tee, the term was designed to represent a mash-up of the words Covid-19, community, immunity, and mRNA, the technology used in the vaccine, writes Insider's Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce, a health reporter and National Health Service medical doctor in the United Kingdom."
Whatever you think of vaccination against the coronavirus, from a purely economic standpoint, one cannot deny that the vaccine-supplying companies will make a lot of money (and with them, their shareholders.) And it will go on at least for one more year, even when Covid cases will decline and when medications will be developed to help cure the infected. Remember, those anti-viral medications, like the new one from Merck, are there to help people who are already sick (and could potentially become long-haulers), while vaccines are there to prevent people from getting sick in the first place, or ending up in the ICU, or even dying.
And since the vaccines for children age 5+ still have to be distributed, as well as the booster shots for everyone who wants one (not just the elderly and immunocompromised), there is still a lot of momentum in the BioNTech shares. Covid will most likely stay with us like the normal flu and require an annual shot. Whether or not you get the shot, you might want to get the shares 😉
When you deal in shares, the right point of purchase is very important, and your guess is as good as mine when that will be. If you’re not letting your investment lie around for a lengthy period, the right point of sale is just as important. With BioNTech, I was lucky: I purchased shares for Lyons Cub when they cost $98.77 a piece on March 10th, 2021. Every time there was a celebration, a gift, household money left over, a tax refund, etc., I purchased more thereafter.
At their height in August, my son’s BioNTech shares were at $431.19 a piece! As you can see, I had invested $8,397.74 in them, but they were worth $18,541.17. Thus, my son had a gain of $10,143.43.
In September, the BNTX shares tanked, because lots of people had walked away with their profits and sold off their BNTX stock in August. I sold some and re-bought them the same day, when they had about a twenty bucks difference in price. That’s called day trading. I was a bit scared of doing it and will probably refrain from it in the future. The ones I didn’t sell are a loss right now, because as of today, 10/21/2021, the BNTX shares are priced at $282.74 — which is still better than my initial purchase price of $98.77. So I’m licking my wounds and wait until they’re rising again.
A few days ago, they were down to $246, and this is when I bought a new batch that has already gained in value. I follow the news around Covid vaccines and buy stock when I hear good news, such as when the inventors of Cominarty win a price (BionNTech Team Wins Science Award), or when booster shots are approved for seniors and at-risk people, or when BioNTech submits data about vaccinating children 5+. I trust that other investors do the same and also buy stocks when there are positive news, which raises the price of the shares. When I get cold feet and think they might drop again, I sell them and invest in something safer, like ETF’s, so I don’t make big losses. And sometimes, when others sell but I don’t, I buy up some slack, because I tell myself these shares will never be that cheap again.
In addition to BNTX shares, I also bought my son Moderna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) stocks. I did not care personally for the viral-vector vaccines Astra Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson, as I am more a believer of mRNA than vector veccines. The viral vector-based vaccines against COVID‑19 are non-replicating, which means that they don’t create new virus particles in your body, but merely the antigen, thus eliciting an immune response. They are better to have than no vaccine at all, but they have been shown to be less effective, and I don’t think they are the future. Also, I do not want to have too many health care shares in my son’s portfolio; I’m trying to have a mix of shares from different economic sectors, so if the health care sector tanks, I still make gains with the technology sector, the lithium sector, the social media sector, the renewable energy sector, the infrastructure/transportation sector, etc.
The BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are messenger RNA vaccines (= mRNA vaccines), meaning they use lab-created mRNA to teach our cells how to make a protein triggering an immune response, in this case, against the spike protein of the coronavirus. Even if the height of the vaccine stocks is over when the pandemic is “over” (if we can even use such a big word, because very likely, we’ll just learn to “live with the virus” instead), I am convinced BioNTech will make a breakthrough with their mRNA cancer drugs in the not so distant future. In addition, according to Forbes, BNTX shares have an 82% chance to rise in the next month. And just in case I see too much decline in the coming years, I will invest into my lithium strategy instead.
As a general outlook, I think inflation might be coming, and I don’t want to keep what I intend to be my son’s financial cushion in a savings account that hardly creates any interest at all. I also do have a property investment, but right now, my tenant hasn’t paid for two months (when he didn’t pay last year, the moratorium protected him from getting a “pay or leave” note), and that can ruin a small landlord/landlady, because we do have to pay our mortgages, taxes, and repairs, whether we have rental income or not. And a few years ago, another tenant almost burned down my whole house, which then stood empty for a year, having to be renovated. Thus, for me, stocks are the new way to go. Whatever it is for you, I wish you luck! (In my case, it’s a little bit of research, a little bit of knowledge, and a lot of luck.)
Disclaimer: This is not a post to discuss vaccination or anti-vaccination. I don’t care what your personal opinion about vaccines is, and my personal conviction and vaccination status are not of your concern, either; this is merely a narrative of how I invested in vaccine companies’ shares to secure my son’s financial future. It doesn’t mean you have to do the same, and I am not giving investment advice. I’m a novice at that and just follow my gut (and the news). I’m also not getting anything for writing down my personal experiences, so this is not a sponsored post whatsoever. Trading is risky. Never invest more than you are able and willing to lose.
(By the way, the beautiful electron microscope pictures of the coronavirus were not taken by me, but I bought them from Shutterstock, where I also sell my own photos, so it’s a give-and-take.)
This is an interesting post! It’s great that you are savvy & invest.