Josh Enomoto

Thu, Jun 19, 2025, 6:15 AM4 min read

I would imagine that very few people love to engage obvious trades. One of the most obvious investment categories right now is gold. With tensions in the Middle East escalating due to Israel’s strike on Iran — and concerns that the U.S. could be dragged into the conflict — the gold market has witnessed noticeable inflows. As such, the mining sector has been a beneficiary. Still, Iamgold (IAG) could be an intriguing prospect despite having already gained significantly.

Like many other mining plays, IAG stock has been a top performer so far this year. Since the January opener, IAG has gained nearly 41% of equity value. Over the past 52 weeks, the security has almost doubled in value. At the same time, Iamgold incurred a bit of a corrective spell this week. Against Monday’s opening volley, IAG is down roughly 4%. This could be a modest discount.

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From a heuristic perspective, IAG stock could be forming a modified bullish pennant formation. In April, the security popped higher but has since charted a series of lower highs. On the other end of the scale, IAG has been forming a series of rising lows. At the culmination of this consolidating phase — or so technical analysts may argue — a breakout may occur.

Potentially, the above setup could represent the catalyst for IAG stock to swing higher, perhaps marching toward the psychologically important $10 level. With the supporting fundamentals, along with a Moderate Buy consensus rating among Wall Street analysts, Iamgold certainly looks intriguing.

As intriguing as the technical and fundamental backdrop is for IAG stock, it lacks in providing a timeframe for action. Of course, no one can predict with absolute certainty the utter chaos of the financial ecosystem. Nevertheless, attempting to find a guidepost in the sand comes down to interpretive practices, which are not reliable.

Especially for options traders, they require a probabilistic framework. With investing, the focus tends to be on the “why” of the target asset or enterprise. With trading, market participants zero in on the “how” — how much, how fast, how likely. After all, options expire, so a thesis must be accurate in magnitude (y-axis) and in time (x-axis) to be profitable. Otherwise, the entire principal (or worse) is at risk.