Shorting Lihir. Thu Jul 30

After the 4.10 pm match out I decided to short Lihir yesterday so I bought some August 283 puts, managing to bend two of my rules in the one trade. However, the puts are fairly liquid with nearly 7000 open positions in that strike price and the stock looks very weak. It's 9.38 am, so there's almost half an hour until Lihir trades but they've just released their 2nd quarter production report which looks quite good, so I'm a little uneasy now. Anyway, here's the chart.

Other than that, the US markets were down, but not much and our overnight futures were steady, albeit having dropped sharply between the equity market close at 4.10 and the futures close at 4.30 pm. Precious metals, base metals, oil, the Australian dollar and the big miners were all weaker overnight.

I don't particularly want to harp on Asciano but there was an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald talking about the large volume going through and the open share registry in a recapitalised company with good quality assets.

10.34 I bought a few more Asciano on the open at 154.5 and the stock is just a little higher now at 156. Lgl has rallied to 275 but so far it looks like a dead cat bounce. A couple of new trades popped up and I've gone long Macmahon holdings and Macquarie Airports.

Macmahon is an engineering contractor. I bought and stopped out last week, but this time the break looks clean and I'm long at 39, thinking of buying a few more at 40.

Map is not confirmed yet but I'm going early on good volume and a nice deep pullback which held above support after a strong move. Long at an average of 233.5. I'd like to see continued strength and a push through 240 today.

11.15 Sigma is not really going anywhere and I've sold out about half my balance this morning for 131.5 (v 132) as I've bought elsewhere. Also sold out the extra Aio at 155 (v 154.5) as nothing is happening right now. Map has pushed as high as 239.

Generally, it could be the time for property trusts and some of the neglected industrials to run.

I've bought some Stockland Group, a property developer and investment manager. Long at a tad above 323.

Mirvac group, a stock in the same sector, is also trading strongly but is still in a fairly tight trading range.

12.03 Asciano started to fail so got out at 152 (v 144). I'm obviously bullish in the bigger picture but I don't want to confuse my aims. This is short term trading not investment. I also bought some Mgr at 122.5, just a small amount. There's some good momentum in the stock and the sector; if it keeps running I can buy more and achieve a good average while if it stalls below the breakout then I'll cut and hopefully the buying strength will limit any losses there.

I bought a few more Mah at 41 to take my average to 39.5.

3.05 Been busy with accounts but the market has held really well today. I've sold out of the last of my Sip at 130.5 (v 132) as nothing much is happening there. Lgl has rallied again, up to 276, and I'm in a quandary but it still doesn't look very strong to me. The new longs in Mah, Map, Mgr and Sgp are all fairly strong. I bought a few more Sgp earlier and took my average price up to 324. Just sold a few at 327 to cover costs. Mgr is now 125 and showing signs of breaking out, I'm thinking of adding to the long.

3.50 Just bought a few more Mgr at 124 to move my average to 123.

4.10 I'm lightening the load after a surprisingly strong day. Sold a few more Map at 239, sold the extra Mah at 41.5 (v 39.5), changed my mind on the additional Mgr so sold out at 124.5 and let go a couple more Sgp on the match at 325. Xjo up 48 points today.