All aboard. Fri Apr 17

Another solid night in the US and Europe and although base metals eased back our base metals sector is very strong, this time broadly amongst large and small cap stocks. A second look at Chinese GDP growth reassured people that the Chinese economy could be over the worst.

My caution in getting out of Kzl was definitely unnecessary as it went vertical this morning. The daily chart is below and explains the point I was making on Wednesday about a change in scale.

Overall, my trades are looking pretty good this morning. Mre is back up to 71 - I sold a small amount at 70.5 vs entry at 65 - and I'm hoping for a similar move to kzl. I've bought in lyc at 25 and mcr at 103 as they're small resources stocks making similar sorts of bullish patterns. It seems that this is the place to be at the moment as the top 50 seems rather staid by comparison.

I like the chart in Lynas Corp'n, lyc, as it shows a flat 3 wave correction. This is where the 3rd leg of the consolidation failed to go below the first pullback. It implies a lot of strength and if the rally resumes there can be strong momentum.Another stock that's gone vertical like kzl, has been Murchison Metals, mmx, in the iron ore sector. It's too late to buy this but I'm interested in another iron ore stock, Mount Gibson, mgx, which is behaving bullishly and has had a tight little correction after making a new high. If it runs above these recent highs, rather than gapping straight above them perhaps, I'd look to buy some.

11.58 I've gone short lgl and ncm again this morning. I've been bearish these two on the basis of weekly charts but I haven't had great entries on the dailies so I've tended to go short then cut for a loss, because despite the logic of weekly trading, which I'll talk about another day, I think my natural time frame tends to be shorter. Therefore, I've decided to use May expiry put options to go short. There's long enough to go until expiry on May 28th for time decay to be manageable and knowing what my exposure is - I can only lose the premium I've paid for the puts - makes it easier to be patient. Once again these two have gapped down, they're both down over 3%, but I think they can fall a fair bit more in the next few weeks. I'm targetting about 250 for lgl, 285 now, and 2500 for ncm which is at 2873.

Ozl has finally pushed through 62.5 and is now at 64.5. It should be plain sailing for a day or two here.The rest of my longs are up as you might expect on a strong day. The large caps are roughly up in line with the market although iag is doing a little better having risen 2.4% or 8c to 347, finally back above my buy price of 345. Of my older short positions, I'm comfortable with bsl and shl but I'm a bit concerned about tol which is up less than the market but is starting to chart quite well in the short term. There was a higher low yesterday around 629 and we're near the top of the short term range here. A bit more strength and the stock could have a surge. So, I'm on the lookout in case I need to stop out here.

1.25 Decided to sell out of mre at 69.5 average as it stalled again at 73.5 and could well drop back to 65. I'm still bullish but I'd be happy to get on again when the run resumes. In the meantime, I've replaced the position with some mgx at 73.5 which look more likely to move today.

1.40 Damn, the mgx went against me rather quickly. I jumped in before it had pushed through the highs on some short term strength and hit some selling. It's chopped straight back to 71.5. Still, lyc has surged, up to 28.5 now.

2.49 The market has slipped rapidly back including mgx unfortunately. I realised I'd misread it and thought about cutting it quickly. I didn't and now it's pulled back to 67 which could be support so I'll wait and see.

3.46 Getting towards the close of trading and the index is on its lows for the day. Not surprising really and I had sold bits and pieces of csl, iag, lei, lyc, mcr and ozl at intervals during the day. I'm still irritated about my timing in mgx but I do like the stock still on the daily chart. Wpl has surprised me with its weakness over the last few days and is heading down towards last week's lows of 3780. It's 3806 now and the stock will have to jump rapidly by next Thursday when my April 4000 calls expire. Still, most things have gone well today; tol failed to push and is now down at 629, shl is still up but it looks like consolidation ahead of the next fall and bsl is falling again after a retracement rally lasting a day or so. Lgl and ncm have slipped further, while on the long side iag, lyc, csl and ozl are holding most of their gains. Lei looks good; sitting just below resistance at 2175 with the chance of a decent rally next week. Chart shows higher lows with a flat top on a 60 minute scale.

4.16 The market closed up 1 point from a high of up 75 earlier. I'd given myself a reminder message on outlook y'day evening to "sell early" but in the end most things held. More on Monday.