Cha-Ching!
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I'd take the profits out of that and keep the original $3k only in there to grow. Invest the $4k you made in something less risky or sit in cash for a good time to buy. But that's just me.
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Exactly what I was thinking.
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I came here to post exactly what Lew posted.
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Just play with the house's money, bro. I did something similar with that NVDA stock you were asking about. I got into it when it went down to ~30. Sold half at ~56, despite the company's significant upside. The old saying is that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
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In one of my accounts, I set a policy that I would buy a stock, and then when it went up 20% I would sell off the original money, keep the profit in it, and then use the original money to buy another stock. My theory is that I can take advantage of random variations in prices to increase my return, and in the long term I'm building my zero-fee mutual fund.
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Lots of smarts in this thread!

It lessens your risk while maintaining your profits, while still being able to profit from that company should it continue to rise. It's a risky sector though, which is why I would maintain a success where I doubled my profits.

Nice job by the way!
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My dad and I were kicking around a similar idea. Just cash out after a good pop and leave the remainder in the stock to build a diversified portfolio over time.
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I've been doing it for quite a while in one account, but eventually switched to a different strategy. I think I was matching the market but not beating it. I adopted it for a new account and it's been doing quite well.

All in all, I like doing it because you minimize risk, keep some skin in the game if you happen to identify a stock rocket, and you don't get fleeced by mutual fund fees.
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I think one of the major upsides is that you end up with a portfolio of companies you have researched and actually like/liked at one point or another.
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So your strategy there is to cash out the original investment and leave the profits or cash out the profits and leave the original?
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Leave the profits.
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So what's your marker for percentage of profits you need to make before doing it?
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I set a threshold at 20% because I'm lazy, but if I had a little more initiative I'd set up a system where I sold the original investment once I got to the point of a 25% annualized return. If you do that, you can take advantage of random small spikes early in the ownership period.
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We were just kicking it around, talking pros and cons.

The big pro to me is developing a portfolio of company's you actually believe in.
Minimizing losses and removing the emotional factor is also important.

We talked about using the fixed percentage OR having a specific exit strateg.

IE If I buy NVDA because I know they are going to kill it in the second quarter because their new graphics card is redefining the market, I sell after the earnings announcement is digested. If I buy it because of their potential growth into the automated driving market, I may establish a long-term hold strategy - or just buy long-term call options. In the case of NVDA I did both. However, I got antsy on my long-term call position after it had basically gained 250% on the value of it. That option would now be worth over 6 times my initial investment. But I am happy just to have raked some gains, even if I gave some up because I am a nervous nelly.
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