Life's a beach. Mon June 15

Another lacklustre night in the US as a late rally led to minor gains. Our market is tentatively down, 11 points at 11.44 am, but given our recent strength there's very little follow through in any selling.

I felt uncomfortable with my positions so I sold out of Lynas after it weakened a little from a firmer open getting out at 59.5 and 60 (v 53.5). It looks like I was a bit premature because it's now 61. I bought Beach Petroleum impatiently on Friday at 87 even though the breakout was 88.5. It's mildly up at 88 but has traded 88.5 so I'm now more settled about the trade but I'm trying to break the habit of jumping in too early.

I've bought Nufarm this morning at 1198; the breakout was 1195.

Because I rarely trade this I wasn't watching it constantly and therefore wasn't tempted to trade without a signal. I'd noticed the set up a couple of days ago and went with the strength this morning. It's a thin stock but is up at 1220 now.

12.15 Out of Gindalbie at 91 (v 85) as it stalls. Mainly, I want to reduce my positions and reassess.

12.31 Out of Beach as well at 86.5 (v87). It may be just that we're having a sell off day in the resources sector - it's actually close to 50/50 up v down but that's relatively weak for us recently - and I was expecting some acceleration once this broke through 88 and that hasn't happened.

12.50 I'm trying to buy some Virgin Blue at 35.5. Vba is an airline stock and I would normally have tried to buy last Thursday, say, on a potential higher low. Nevertheless, buying at 35.5 or 36, if need be, has some advantages. The trades at 36 have confirmed a higher high and higher low on the weekly chart while the daily looks very positive with the momentum that was lacking in Beach.

The weekly is below. 2.39 I eventually paid 36 for Vba only for it to edge back, it's now at 35.

3.04 The market is getting weaker and I can see the sell off gathering momentum. Nuf started to sell off again so I decided to reduce my longs and sell them out for 1201 (v 1198) to cover costs.

3.59 I've cut my long in Ozl at 99 (v 105) and hedged the August 90 calls with short stock at 99. I chased this one and unfortunately it has edged below Friday's low. I think it's probably just filling a gap but I'll wait for a better set up now.