It has been about a year since we looked at Brinks Home Security Holdings, ticker CFL.    At that time it had been around for about 90 days and had its price had gone pretty much sideways.  How’s it doing now?

Well, the above chart from Yahoo Finance that shows CFL compared to the parent company, Brinks,  BCO pretty much tells the story for this one so far.

The two charts underscore the importance of – -

• knowing when you will decide that a trade isn’t doing what you’d expected going and then sticking to it, in the case of BCO
• and,  following your plan when things aren’t happening quite as quickly as you had hoped, in the case of CFL

Whether you had picked the parent or the spin-off stock, it is likely that some emotional self-management would have been called for in order to exhibit the kind of trade discipline that make for a long term ascending equity curve.

Now some including the Motley Fool are suggesting that it is time for the parent to shine.  For the sake of those who held onto BCO after the stock spin-off of the home security business, let’s hope they are right.

Tags: BCO, Brinks Co., Brinks Home Security, CFL, emotional self-management, spin-off stock, stock spin-off, trading discipline

The Brinks Company, BCO, famous for its armored trucks that carry cash around for banks, business, and the like, has announced that it will spin off its home security unit. Brinks shareholders as of October 21, 2008, will receive one share of the new company, Brinks Home Security Holdings, for each share of Brinks.

Brinks Home Security Holdings is applying to trade under the symbol CFL. So far the logic of choosing that symbol has not been divulged, nor has the registration statement been filed, but they assure us that is all in process.

It will be interesting to see how the two parts divide out. Not that “home” anything feels too appetizing just now, but perhaps management will illuminate us on how this might be a real opportunity in the form 10.

Tags: BCO, Brinks, spin off