IMCO Recycling

IMR

Company. IMCO Recycling is "the world's largest recycler of aluminum and zinc. The company has 22 U.S. production plants and five international facilities located in Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Wales." (company website)

Buy. When I bought IMR at the beginning of June, the price had been rising for two weeks on heavy volume. The trend was strong (ADX line) and selling pressure had fallen to a very low level. Money was flooding into the stock (CMF).

Sell. After I bought IMR I realized that I had waited much too long to buy; it was up almost 30% in two weeks. Yikes! As a result, I was watching it like a hawk.

After yesterday's big rise, I set a trigger to protect a gain of $1 per share. In the course of the morning, the price drifted low enough to fire the trigger and the shares sold.

If I had not been burned so many times in the past few months, I would not have sold IMR. It is still well above my purchase price, and the trend is still strengthening. But— there have just been too many times when a stock that looked solid took a sudden plunge and left me holding the bag.