Know When to Take Profits on a Fast Mover
How does earning 107% in just four months sound to you?
And how about making this type of profit without risking your shirt on some random cryptocurrency or a fast-moving tech stock with no profits?
Last week, in the most recent issue of my Retirement Millionaire newsletter, we booked a 107% winner on... an aluminum company.
I know that doesn't sound very sexy.
But when you have the right setup, you don't have to take wild risks to earn quick gains.
Let me back up...
In November of last year, we wanted to profit from the reshoring boom that's bringing manufacturing capability back to America. One clear way to do this was through aluminum – turning the U.S. back into a manufacturing powerhouse would require a lot of the stuff.
But the problem was that the U.S. produces very little aluminum.
Globalization has obliterated our country's domestic industry. In 2024, China accounted for nearly 60% of the world's aluminum output. Take a look...
In 2000, the U.S. was the world's leading producer of aluminum. We had 23 aluminum smelters. Today, we only have four. And these facilities' total capacity is just about 2% of the global total.
In 2024, the U.S. had to import roughly half of all the aluminum it used.
Again, we need aluminum if we're going to be a country that manufactures real things. Aluminum is crucial for U.S. industries from automotive and aerospace to electronics and national defense.
Plus, on the other side of the supply-and-demand equation, demand for aluminum will only grow in the future... According to a report from the nonprofit Industrious Labs, U.S. demand for aluminum is going to rise 40% by 2035.
Put all of this together, and we knew the current setup was not going to work for much longer.
So we decided to buy America's largest aluminum producer, Century Aluminum (CENX). At the time, the company only had a market cap of about $2.7 billion. That shows just how small aluminum production has gotten in this country.
Making the pick more attractive, Century was shielded from President Donald Trump's tariffs because it's domestic. That gave it an edge over its foreign competitors whose aluminum was hit with a large tax.
In short, we saw the perfect setup for Century to rocket higher in the months and years to come.
We ultimately didn't need to wait years, though... We got our big move higher in just four months.
Aluminum prices in the U.S. soared to multiyear highs in that span, which caused Century's stock to more than double.
That left me and my team with a dilemma. Should we be safe and sell the shares... or take a risk and keep riding the momentum higher?
Here's what we decided, from this month's issue of Retirement Millionaire...
Now, some of America's tariffs are in question amid court battles and ever-changing policy. Trump has specifically mentioned his team may roll back aluminum tariffs.
We got the move we were looking for in Century – just much faster than we thought.
Now, as you can see in the chart below, Century can really take off when it has momentum, like it did in 2007 and 2008. But it can also come crashing down in an instant.
Maybe Century has more upside. We could be leaving some profits on the table today... But more important, we want to avoid the crash and protect the gains we already have.
Plus, we have seen a bunch of Century insiders cash out their shares recently...
CEO Jesse Gary sold approximately $7 million worth of shares in late January. Gunnar Gudlaugsson, the head of global operations, sold another $2.3 million on February 25. Glencore (GLNCY), the company's largest backer, just offloaded over 6.3 million shares in a massive block trade on March 4.
Let's follow suit and lock in a gain on a fast mover...
To recap, we decided to sell because the aluminum tariffs are now in question. And if they're removed or rolled back, that would hurt Century. We also saw insiders at the company selling their shares on the move higher, signaling that the rally might be topping out.
But more importantly, look at that chart above. Any stock that shoots up that fast has the potential to come crashing down in no time at all. Even with a tight stop loss, a sell-off could've wiped out most of our gains before we had time to react.
So while we may have left some profits on the table, that's a trade-off we were willing to make. Protecting our triple-digit gain and our peace of mind took priority.
If we look back in a year and see we didn't nail the peak, that's OK. No investor has a crystal ball and can time the market perfectly.
All you can do is make the best decisions for your portfolio in the moment using the information you have. And if that means taking profits, so be it.
This is why we also decided to close out three other profitable positions in our recent issue of Retirement Millionaire...
We sold a financial stock that was trading at a hefty premium, booking a gain of about 300%.
We sold a freight company that could lose pricing power because of new AI capabilities, locking in a 100%-plus profit before the market soured on it further.
And finally, we sold a consumer-staples stock for about a 30% gain because we were worried about its earnings in the future.
Now, I've preached before that you don't want to get in the habit of cutting your winners short. The best holding period is many, many years... even decades.
But you shouldn't be afraid to sell stocks when the story changes or if valuations seem a little too unrealistic.
That's what we did with these three winners, as well as Century. Now we can move on and look for other promising setups elsewhere.
And in the meantime, we still have plenty of Strong Buys in our portfolio. These are opportunities that can compound your wealth in the long term.
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What We're Reading...
- Something different: Delta Air Lines (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL) raise their revenue guidance, citing growth in demand.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
March 18, 2026