Informatica (INFA)

Company

"Informatica Corporation is a leading provider of enterprise data integration software. Using Informatica products, companies can access, integrate, migrate, and consolidate enterprise data across systems, processes, and people to reduce complexity, ensure consistency, and empower the business. More than 2,200 companies worldwide rely on Informatica for their end-to-end enterprise data integration needs." (company website)

Buy

8-Jun-05. Informatica has spent several months trading between $7.50 and $8.50. It finally broke out and is now consolidating around $8.75. I'm cautiously optimistic that additional moves are possible.

• Price momentum (PPO) — increased sharply this month, but is starting to fall off a bit
• Trend (ADX) — very strong trend, still strengthening, although buying pressure (+DI) is slipping a bit
• Money flow (CMF) — positive, but a bit erratic
• Relative strength (RSI) — gradual increase over past two months

Sell

22-Jul-05. I intended to sell this lot of INFA to raise cash, while continuing to hold another lot purchased later. I set a trailing-stop order to trigger if INFA traded above $9.50. Yesterday, INFA reported earnings after the market closed and turned in record results that surpassed expectations, causing the price to shoot up at this morning's open. The huge jump and following gyrations triggered my trailing-stop order, and it executed, giving me the solid profit I expected. It was less, however, than I could have reaped in light of the subsequent climb during the session.