TICKER:NOBL

Continuing from my Thursday post; my first overnight hold - NOBL - has turned out to be... well... profitable and incredibly frustrating at the same time... and it's still not over yet!

As I previously mentioned in this post - NOBL was my first overnight hold. I must confess NOBL has forced me to learn a couple of valuable lessons over the past 4 days. But before I get into those lessons I want to walk you through my trading action since Friday.

Ok, so I received a TIMAlert late Thursday afternoon to buy NOBL. I quickly opened my TOS software and saw the bid/ask @ $5.30/$5.35 respectively. Not wanting to cut into any potential profit I placed a limit order at ~3:54 PM EST, for 1,000 shares, @ $5.25. To my surprise it was immediately executed! There was one catch though... I only got 600 shares @ $5.25. At first I was like SHIT! did I bid to low? Was I being cheap? Didn't matter.

I quickly clicked the "Prophet" tab on the TOS software and saw how fast NOBL was climbing... I quickly realized I was lucky to have even gotten any shares @ $5.25, let alone 600. For the next 6 minutes (the last 6 minutes of the trading day) I watched the stock climb $.15. Wow!! The feeling that overcame was almost orgasmic... and over a measly $.15 too! But seriously, do the math...

SIDE NOTE: When you (I) purchase a stock that you've invested $5,250 into (and your account is only worth ~ $4,800)... and that chart starts to breakout, it's a pretty awesome feeling!

Friday morning rolls around and I'm totally pumped to sell NOBL for a nice proft... I keep speculating in my head how much money I'll make - $200, $300, $500?! As the clock counts down to opening bell, I have my finger on the trigger ready to sell just in case NOBL decides to go the other direction on me... tick, tick, tick... the bell goes off! NOBL is out of the gates like a racehorse in the Kentucky Derby...

Within 6 minutes of market open NOBL hits it's HOD (High of Day) @ $5.75... I hold though... I want more! Hoping, anxiously awaiting to see this stock breakout to $6.00... but it never happens... 10 minutes later, NOBL, hovering around $5.65ish, with all it's charm drops $.10, $.15, $.20 cents... NOOO! I pull the trigger aka sell that biznatch as fast as I can. My sell order of 600 shares gets executed at 9:54 AM EST @ $5.52! Moments pass... I breathe... look at how I've done... not bad... after commissions my first profitable trade was $142.10... in only 30 minutes. Thanks Tim.

Now of course I want more of that action... I'm proud of myself for "seeing the light" and selling when I did... I didn't get the $6.00 I was hoping for, but I also didn't hold so long that I ended up with nothing... or even worse a loss.

Since I've started trading, even with paper money, I always go to the Green On The Screen chat room to read what people are doing for the day. At this point it's about 10:20 AM EST...I see a lot of people in the room chattering about NOBL... I'm thinking to myself great it's going up again... I'm such a NOOB! Everyone was talking about shorting NOBL... I started inquiring about what price people were looking to short at... this motivated me to want to short NOBL too... make money going up, make money coming down... why not?

I post a comment that I want to short NOBL @$5.50... chat room goddess aka Laura, chimes in and tells me to do it... now I'm not naive by any means, but when the chat room goddess says jump, you ask how high? I go to try and short 1,000 shares and my fucking internet connections drops! WTF?!?!? I'm so pissed off right now... when a stock is moving, every second counts... I'm frantic, all the while my mom is sitting right next to me watching me go through this! In hind-sight, I was probably a bit over dramatic...

Minutes later I finally get my connection back... I look at the bid/ask and it's at $5.27/$5.32; I place a short order of 1,000 shares @ $5.30... seconds later the order is executed. My first execution is at 10:27 AM EST for 300 shares @ $5.2984; my second execution is at 10:27 AM EST for 700 shares @ $5.2901. Rad, I'm going to make money going both ways on this one! I'm still choked about my friggin internet connection crapping out on me though... but I keep my eye on the chart... not having a clue when I should cover my short! HA! Friggin noob I am!

I continue bouncing back and forth between Green On The Screen and the TOS software watching NOBL shit the bed... I start to feel a bit of anxiety... that "cold feet" thing again. Because I don't want to screw with my profit I just made going long on NOBL. So my cover gets executed 20 minutes later and I'm out NOBL at an average price of $5.099, for a profit of $174.70, after commissions.

Now I'm feeling like a rockstar right about now because not only did I execute my first profitable trade earlier, but now I've done it again, on the same stock, in the same day, going the opposite direction! Gets up and starts dancing! Rad!

Not much time to celebrate though, as NOBL is still ripe for the picking... back in the Green On The Screen I'm asking who is still in... most people are... of course I'm kicking myself for that! Most people are saying they're going to wait until Monday or Tuesday to cover their shorts. Of course I want a piece of that action, so like a noob, not more than 2 minutes after I just got out... I'm back in, shorting NOBL for another 1,000 shares! What am I thinking?! Oh yeah about the $$$!

Lesson #1, don't get caught up in chat room hype... if you make a couple nickels, hold your head high and walk away... live to trade another day!

SIDE NOTE: At the same time I shorted NOBL for the second time, in one day, my eye caught some chatter about ABK being a great short opportunity. Not thinking I impulsively try shorting ABK , however, something was looking out for me... because my trade got rejected (it was a hard to borrow stock). The stock is @ $4.18... I was going to short it @ $4.08... would have been a big loss for me. After this whole dramatic moment was over... I caught myself... WTF am I doing?!

Of course now my heart is pumping out of my chest... I can feel it beating really fast... like when you run at a 9.0 pace on a treadmill... So not only am I noob, making an impulsive buy, now I'm getting greedy too? Not a good thing considering this is only my first week of trading.

Lesson #2, don't be greedy! don't be impulsive! don't be a noob! I've made a very bold statement... turning $5,000 into $1,000,000 is no small feat, however it can be done... but not if I'm going to trade like the aforesaid! C'mon, head in the game noob!

Fast forwarding to present day... first this this morning, NOBL takes a shit on the sidewalk, for about 5 minutes... then it spikes to above $5.14... I nearly crapped myself... WTF is going on here?! A mind fuck, that's what! This stock does nothing but go sideways ALL day... actually it very gradually goes up to throughout the day, then peaks @ $5.15 around 3:15 PM EST... now my second rule is cut losses quickly, 3%. According to my math, based on the position I held I would have to sell at $5.16, to keep in line with my 3% loss rule.

Well, rules were meant to be broken and in this case, in order to teach myself a lesson, I held my position... it was my business partner's (Chris Warren) birthday, over the weekend, and I wanted to take him out for lunch. When I got back from lunch, I saw NOBL dropped to $4.75, which is what I had been waiting for since Friday! Again, in the same day, I could have made a modest $250ish profit... no harm, no foul...

Lesson #3, I could have made $250 profit, after commissions, this morning, if I wasn't being so gun-ho to get my first $500-$1,000 day! What I failed to realize is that I can't jump into much else because this one stock is taking up all my buying power. I want to double my account size by December 31, 2008 - there are ~ 100 days to trade left in the year... if I'm averaging $200 per day that would give me $20,000!! That's double what my goal is! TAKE YOUR SMALL PROFITS AND LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK NOOB!!! Ya noob!

So... here I am... 11:37 PM PST... have to get up at 5:00 AM PST... tired... humbled by my mistakes... excited for tomorrow though!

Tomorrow, rain or shine, win or lose... I'll post the final outcome of the fight between Noob and NOBL.