I recently took some profits.  Back in August.

I took profits at .62.  (seriously).

I took profits at .82.  I had sold about 20% of my NOT at that time.

I bought back what I had sold and bought 20% more at .77 (talk about lucky) after reviewing the first NR after the halt.

I was tempted to take profits at 1.50.  Resisted.

I was tempted to take profits at 2.00.  Resisted.

Never really thought about it today to tell you the truth.

I have decided to wait until we hit $10 to sell off 20%.  I may do this after $5 depending on how things are going at that time but unlike other pump and dumps that drive a stock high and then crash it three days later, this one is being driven by sheer demand.  Those trying to pull the price back are getting hammered time after time.  Any down dips are soon crushed with a new surge.  The swings are very small percentage wise when they do happen.  It has signs of a stock that is desired, with some fear selling on dips and of course some profit taking allowing buying opportunities.  At some point I will sell 20%.

The other 80% I am letting ride until we know a lot more about Windfall.  IE. the ramp is completed and the bulk samples are returned.  I expect this to happen some time in the Spring.  Sure I could sell and see it go down and buy back in again, but I am tired of trying to guess swings.  I would prefer to sit back and watch it all happen.   I am glad that the nickel and copper at Double Eagle are creating excitement, but I am here for the Gold.  With Gold at $715 an ounce and targeted to be at $2000 by 2010, it is what I am looking forward to.  It is always in demand.  I may keep this share long term if the company decides to pay dividends on the minerals coming out of the ground.  Or I may be forced to sell them to someone else if a takeover happens.

Again, I will sell 20% and take a profit at some point, but likely on a downturn rather than this climb.

Here are the reasons I am hopeful:

1)  I 100% believe that the reason we stayed under $1 for the past year is due to the following:

- massive naked shorting by the houses last year when Windfall news first broke.  The evidence was in the volumes combined with the downward pressure and swings.  They were keeping the price low to keep the PP offering low.  As is they walked away with a third of the company (30 millions shares at .50).  A look at buyins.net shows that the stock was indeed naked shorted until early January.

- Lack of promotion.  The stock went from .18 cents to 1.07 and then back down to .70 in the course of 30 days.  Nothing to write home about or get excited about if you did not know the full story.  There are 100s of stocks that did this in 2007.  It was a bear market and uranium and moly mania overshadowed the NOT opportunity.

- Lack of attention by the brokers.  Noboby cared about NOT as there were no more PP shares to get after the second week of December 2006.  As well, they could not trade those shares until April.  After April, many shares were sold below .60 cents as PPs took profits.  They knew Windfall would take many months and they could get in again once news started to get out.

Overall, NOT was a stock that had a small following of longs and a long list of people keeping an eye on it.  But it was unknown on Bay Street and the U.S.  Even when it was at .37 cents in August, the demand was not that high.  Canseco and I were able to accumulate with the money we made on our bottle returns - that is how bad things were.

What changed?

I believe that for the first time in NOT history, the story finally started to come out to the people with big $$$.  The addition of Agoracom cannot be understated.  Sure we have now have a nice blog, but I have noticed that the entire news strategy has changed.  NOT is much more open to telling us what is coming up rather than leaving us guessing.  We now have maps, charts, graphs, ...  NOT is being featured on financial sites.  Brokers are likely being contacted for presentations, ...  And Richard is not only releasing news, but holding out apples for the next upcoming NR.

The halts were very effective in providing people time to tell others about the potential.  The volumes in a very bad market drew attention towards the company.  Now large money funds have their analysts looking at the present and past NOT news releases and MD&As.  My guess is they saw a very cheap stock given the properties in play.

Windfall, Double Eagle, Burnt Hill, Mexico (El Verde, Escondido), China, Hungary, Lizar, and of course the massive potential of Hunter's Point (uranium).

These are all potential winners and not somebody else's leftovers like many other companies option.  Two have now been confirmed as very high potential winners (Windfall and Double Eagle) based on assay results. 

The big money have their analyts who eat these assay results for breakfast working overtime.  While some on here are doing some estimating as to NPV, you can be guaranteed that the big money is doing this as well.  With more becoming aware of Noront and do this work, more demand is appearing.

I expected a pullback yesterday and for sure today.  I expected more swings.  I am not seeing either.  Instead I saw an 85% increase in yesterdays closing price.  I am at a loss for words for how this happened.  Okay, maybe not a loss for words..... but it was shocking.

What I believe is happening is that with the release of the hole 1, 2, and 5 core pictures, the market has had a sneak peak at the core and responding.  I would not be surprised to see this climb continue tomorrow as more eyes are brought on what Noront has with its properties.  Somebody knows what those types of CORES mean over a 68 metre length, with a 50M true width.

The risk we all face is that at some point the stock will become overspec'd or overvalued.  I saw this happen two years ago with Centurion (CUX).  It went from $1 to $18 very quickly only to return to $12 and then fall to $8 just 18 months later.  The company was then bought last summer for $12 by an Egyptian company.  Still, the value of the company was $12 and it took investors a few months in 2005 to figure that out.  Anyone buying over $12 overpaid.

The same will happen to Noront I'm sure.  But I do not believe that $4 is overpaying.  We think so because we were so used to looking at .40 to .80 cents shares for the better part of ten months.  The rest of the market only sees today's picture and prices.  I do anticipate a pullback at some point.  It will likely not be before the HOLE 5 results are out.  It may not be until much later.  But it will happen.  It happened last year after ARU went from .60 cents to $40.  It pulled back to $30 for many months earlier this year. (still not a bad situation for early shareholders mind you).

What is funny is that I could not convince people to buy NOT at .40 cents.  Or .80.  Many of these bought today at $3.50.  To them the proof was in pictures.

My hope is that Noront reaches the share price it truly deserves given what is currently known, and not by how many companies naked short it, pump it, or dump it.  The nice shiny stuff in the ground is worth something at the end of the day.  I want to stick around until I know how much that is.  Like some have said on here, these types of properties only come around once a decade.

That is just my strategy but I am a bit of a risk taker.  Buying NOT last year at .20 cents was a risk as it dropped to .165 a few days later.  I had the same apprehension and emotions during that time as I have had this week.  In the end it is just investing, and sometimes the stuff of hopes and dreams.  Here's to all of our dreams coming true!

M1.