Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) has been in a bear market since 2011 along with the entire precious metals sector. But notice how it made a bear market low in 2011, which is similar to how platinum and palladium bottomed.
Then it simply carved out a nice long base for 2 years, shaking all weak hands and non-believers out of the stock. Then, something I really like, the base tightened in late 2013, just as gold was making an important major bottom.
Essentially this is what was happening: as gold and precious metals made important bottoms in late 2013, Stillwater had no more bears left to push it lower. So once the pressure came off the rest of the precious metals sector, Stillwater transitioned right into a Stage 2 bull market advance immediately.
This is typically super-bullish behavior and is how big winning stocks behave when the pressure of a down market is taken off of them. Stillwater has been in a Stage 2 bull market throughout 2014 even though the precious metals had more pressure into the June bottom (which finally seems to be going away).
So if we are now in a Stage 2 advance I would expect this stock could really start moving. One other thing to note, Stillwater has a 20% short position against it so it also has the potential fuel of shorts covering if it starts moving higher. I have no position currently in this stock but may look into taking one.