The party's over. Wed Apr 8

Another late start to my blogging after a ton of distractions this morning. The market is down 2% at 1.30pm as we follow the US lead and it seems like the first leg, at least, of the rally is over.

Here's a daily chart of the spi showing a five wave rally with a big reversal over the last two days.

I cut the last of my sun, which had disturbed me y'day afternoon. Unfortunately, I hesitated too long and got out at 619. Bought at 644 and average sale price was 637. I also decided to stop out of wpl as the promising looking consolidation at around 3900 failed and although it hasn't broken the 3800 level, it looks very ordinary on the shorter term charts. I'm also a good chance to get back on if it does find support here. Sold out at 3840 vs a buy price of 3873 so another small loss there. The rest of my positions are doing ok given the market. Tls is up again at 337 and I sold a few more early in the day at 342 (buy at 321) while I bought back half my short in fmg at 228. Csl is down, but only by 0.4% while lnc is right on support at 193.

Having run through the top 50 there are a lot of charts pulling back but few with convincing shorting opportunities. I like lgl and ncm as shorts but think that they need to rally back a bit more first. I do quite like tol. It's had a good weekly rally and essentially I think it looks quite bullish. However, the rally has been losing momentum and the stock closed on its lows last week. Today's fall has signalled the first recent break of the low of the previous week and should have enough momentum for a worthwhile trade.

The daily chart shows a little sell signal generated today after the sluggish retracement rally of the last 2 days.1.51 Short tol now at 602 as a little rally fails. Also, sold out of lnc at 191 (entry 188) after I've held this too long really. I'm more than happy to buy again if it shows strength but it's 8 days since the peak around 250 and I'm guilty here of falling in love with the position.

Today is really about clearing the decks as the market shows signs of topping out and leading into the Easter break it makes sense that people are taking money off the table. I'm left with long positions in cnm, csl and tls and shorts in fmg and tol. I'm fairly pleased that the predominantly long portfolio I've had hasn't given back much as the market has fallen sharply.

3.38 Sold out of tls a little while ago at 335 as it has sold off from the open and the momentum of the last 3 days has faded. The market is now down 2.4%.

4.10 The market closed near its lows and I have only a few positions left. I'm happy to wind down for the moment.