Not paying attention. Tue June 9

Like a bored school kid the market is failing to concentrate and seems to be moving quite randomly in the first hour or so of trading after the long weekend. The index might have been expected to drift lower after a buoyant week which wasn't really supported by the last couple of days of trading overseas but it has been up as much as 25 points although it's now up just 6 points.

My positions have not performed well. Ozl is the best of them but is slipping to be up 2 at 90 and looking like it might have made a lower high. If it breaks below Friday's low then I'll sell out.

My other long is Woodside which looks determined to break below the 4200 support level despite the oil price holding up well in the face of a resurgent US dollar and a declining gold price. Meanwhile my two financial shorts are up more than 1% each. Cba is 3716, up 65, having been as high as 3743. Friday's high was 3765 before a big reversal so if Cba has made a lower high this morning then this position could still come good. Macquarie opened slightly lower and rallied quite hard to reach 3772, it's now up 53 at 3741 and is still making new recent highs on the daily chart but with fading momentum.I don't think it looks good but there's no sell signal yet so I shouldn't be short.

I want to wait a little while before putting on any new positions because the market seems lacklustre and I expect reversals of some of the sharper moves.

12.26 I've been noticing some weakness in Brambles lately. The stock looks like it may have completed a 3 wave retracement rally on the daily chart.

The 60 minute chart highlights the fall from last Wednesday's high, a failing rally on Friday and further weakness today. Short some at 591.12.48 There are signs of reversal now with Mqg down a few cents after an early rise and Cba 60 off its high although still up on the day. The ASX 200 has slipped to be down 8 points.

1 pm I sold out of Ozl at 90 (v 93) as I've lost patience with this. I initially bought on a high momentum breakout, chasing it really, and I sold a third of my position for a small profit pretty quickly because I knew it was a risky trade. The momentum faded fast so I'm happy enough to be out for a small loss overall.

1.18 I've hedged my other long in Wpl at 4214. It's just broken a support which, more accurately, was at 4211. I feel like there's ultimately more upside so I'm hoping I can unwind the hedge at some point and have another go with these calls. Here's the daily chart.

The disappointment for me is that there wasn't much warning. I sold out half my position above 4400 but there was no great opportunity to get out as the stock dumped after a couple of Doji bars. Perhaps that should have been warning enough....a Doji bar, where the open and close are pretty much the same, especially in a small range, is a pretty good indicator of indecision. Two of them together with the second tighter than the first makes that clear. In future, I'll try to heed these subtle warnings! Actually, the truth is there's no correct answer, there are just probabilities. There were 2 successive Doji bars in the May run up at around 4200 and the stock charged up afterwards.
It's funny, I feel uncomfortable with this hedge as though I'm shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. As I've said above, the intuitive time to sell was 3 days ago and this is the ideal opportunity for disappointed longs like me to get squeezed out.

2.34 Well, I've talked myself out of the Wpl hedge taking a small loss by buying back at 4230 as it reverses off the lows.

3.48 The aimlessness continues although the market has fallen further to be down 28 points. I've looked through the charts of the top 50 and I'm a bit bearish, I can see the opportunity for the market to fall but I don't see any glaring opportunities now.

4.10 It's seemed like a strange day to me, as if the US market was going to be closed tonight instead of the situation we have had where there's been two days of action to respond to. Maybe it's just my positions which have ground against me most of the day. I'm long Wpl which closed at 4217 while Bxb, Cba and Mqg all held well as the market fell throughout the day.