One more squeeze of the lemon. Fri May 8

It's 12.25 pm and the Australian market is down 26 points, a mild fall after a strong week and a soft night in the US. The market has been threatening to plunge but so far every time the futures contract makes a marginal new low, it bounces back. The US stress tests were released after the market and overnight US futures are mildly positive so that's probably helping us.

I'm beginning to wonder whether the market will attempt to rally as the day goes on because it's unable to fall.

It's idle speculation in practical terms though. The only change I've made this morning is to buy more lgl at 303. This was a minor buy signal while a stronger one would be a sale above 310, last week's high.

There's been no follow through buying and the stock is back to 300. The rest of the sector has also sold off after early strength so I'm getting concerned. Last night physical gold opened strongly but faded to close unchanged so there was no help there either. My plan is to sell the additional stock later on if lgl can't push back to 303 or higher.Apart from this, ipl and lnc have drifted back with the market. Qbe is also down so I'm getting a bit back from option revaluations.

2.43 Nothing much to add. The index has moved back to square with a gentle rally. My stocks haven't moved.

3.31 Fortescue Mining, fmg, is up 12 cents and has made a minor buy signal. It's still in a range but has lagged the sector due to the court case involving the founder and CEO Andrew Forrest. I imagine it's short covering ahead of the verdict. I'd be interested in taking a small position if I could buy call options; but I can't right now.

The other reason for watching this but not trading is that I don't want to complicate my book. I'm enjoying focussing on a small group of stocks. I've had a good week despite missing the boat on Monday, and especially despite having missed the big run in wpl.

4.03 A bit of a tedious day. I'm racing off shortly but the market is unchanged ahead of the 4.10 match. I'm selling out half of the lgl I bought at 303 for 300 (or 301?) on the match so that's slightly disappointing. US payroll numbers and unemployment coming through tonight so that's the context for today's stalemate. It's been a good day to get some admin done.