surething1111 - Urgent Requestsurething1111,
Sorry to bother you, but you have had a great track record in reading this stock and the cheerleaders, and I really would appreciate some insight from a reliable source.
The recent price move is very interesting. There have been previous price spikes that seemed mysterious as there was no news and the trading activity was a little weird. This would be followed by "retracement" as the Big IF Hub Leader likes to call it - often the "retracement" was to a new low. So in hindsight, one might suspect that the upward activity was "engineered" by players, rather than a reflection of investors' sudden urge to become a shareholder in this sleeping conglomerate.
The recent spike has some added interest in that the CEO and COO have become part of the group that have suddenly become interested in adding to their holdings. For the CEO, this is somewhat of a milestone. To my recollection this is his first normal market transaction since he unloaded a sizeable whack back when he was doing the media promotional circuit in the spring of '07 - when ISM hit its all time high. The Big IF Hub Leader reads this CEO/COO transaction as a bullish sign. I guess I'm not so easily convinced - but then I don't have the advantage of using technical analysis to form my opinion. I find the transactions more suspicious than bullish. For one thing, the expenditure by the CEO of one week's remuneration on 20,000 shares does not seem that significant to me - when put in perspective. It makes me wonder if we are expected to believe that something suddenly happened this month, that was unexpected when they could have bought almost double the shares for the same outlay, a couple of months back. As I believe insiders are not allowed to trade for a period of time prior to an important public disclosure, we will likely never know just what triggered this leap of faith by the car pooling duo from Newmarket, ON (that town is closer to the center of the universe than Timmins is to Sudbury). whaler can be comforted by this bullish sign, I'll remain suspicious until I am made aware of a fundamental change in the company's potential.
But the thing that really intrigues me is the inactivity on this forum. The share price has made a significant move, and no one has said a thing. We know there are at least two admirers of ISM and its management, that have been active on the LBE forum - that have never darkened the door of the ISM forum since this price surge. Given doingthejob's urge to post on UMJ, and the sudden removal of his post - it makes me wonder if the word is out to remain silent on the subject of ISM. whaler would be exempt, as he is experienced at speaking without really saying anything - but some of these other cheerleaders are prone to foolishness that might bring ISM strategy into question. So surething1111, I would appreciate your seasoned opinion on this cheerleader inactivity. Of course, anything you can add on the market activity and insider buying would also be appreciated. I put much more faith in your opinion, as a person who shorted ISM prior to a share price plummet, than the opinion of the naive neophyte from GTA, who saw value in going long prior to the 2010 share price collapse.