{"id":26408,"date":"2026-02-24T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/?p=26408"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:05:39","slug":"wheres-biotech-headed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wheres-biotech-headed\/","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s Biotech Headed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Biotechnology stocks are setting up for a BIG move.<\/p>\n<p>Look at this chart of <a href=\"https:\/\/tradesmith.com\/stockdata\/IBB:NASDAQ\">the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB)&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"639\" src=\"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2.24.26-JMU.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-918008\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.0954884460202958;width:900px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2.24.26-JMU.png 700w, https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2.24.26-JMU-300x274.png 300w, https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2.24.26-JMU-432x394.png 432w, https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2.24.26-JMU-526x480.png 526w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p>Biotechnology has been one of the hottest sectors in the market over the past 10 months. After bottoming near $112 per share last April, IBB rallied all the way up to $175 &ndash; a gain of 56% &ndash; by late-November. Since then, though, the fund has been stuck in a tight, 10-point trading range.<\/p>\n<p>This action has allowed the momentum indicators at the bottom of the chart to back off from their overbought conditions. They are now firmly in neutral territory.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the various moving averages &ndash; which had expanded far away from each other during the rally phase &ndash; have now coiled together. Energy is building to fuel the next big move.<\/p>\n<p>And, that &ldquo;next big move&rdquo; is likely to start when IBB breaks out of the consolidating triangle formation (the dashed red lines on the chart) that has formed over the past several weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The obvious question, of course, is &ldquo;which way?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Consolidating triangle patterns don&rsquo;t favor one direction over the other. They tell us a big move is coming. But, they don&rsquo;t indicate whether that move is likely to be bullish or bearish. So, we have to look at other factors &ndash; like seasonality.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to stocks, the term &ldquo;seasonality&rdquo; refers to the typical behavior of the stock price during a specified time period. And, for IBB the next several weeks tend to lean bearish.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, according to TradeSmith&rsquo;s Seasonality Screener, from now until late-March IBB declines 67% of the time. And, the average decline is about 2.35%. Though, in 2023 IBB dropped over 23% during this time frame.<\/p>\n<p>So, with the biotech sector on the verge of a large move, and with seasonal winds blowing bearish, traders should hold off on buying biotech stocks at the moment. We&rsquo;ll likely have a much better chance to jump into the sector a few weeks from now.<\/p>\n<p>Best regards and good trading,<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/files.jeffclarktrader.com\/global\/signatures\/jeff-clark-signature.png\" alt=\"Signature\" width=\"200\" style=\"max-width:200px;width:100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Jeff Clark<br>\nEditor, <em>Market Minute<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biotechnology stocks are setting up for a BIG move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"0","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"service":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication":[10],"person":[],"newsletter-type":[],"ticker":[],"class_list":["post-26408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-minute","publication-market-minute"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26417,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26408\/revisions\/26417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26408"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=26408"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=26408"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-type?post=26408"},{"taxonomy":"ticker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ticker?post=26408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}