The price reactions of COVID-19 vaccine development candidate companies are examined in order to explain how prices behave in highly-publicized scenarios and how retail investors are impacted. Findings indicate that retail investors were susceptible to inappropriate timing of the market and sustained losses on average. Various methods of prior analysis and their limitations are introduced including observation of trading volume makeup, event-themed reactions, and financial statement extraction that may guide subsequent navigation of volatile trading landscapes. Portfolio methods of mitigating losses due to lack of information or misinformation are also explained.