Tiddlers still alive. Mon Aug 17

I left for a trip to Brisbane early in the session on Friday morning with the index close to a peak but after that, fairly predictably, trading on Friday afternoon saw the index fall 30 points or so from its early highs. I was worried about my positions seeing that a weak US market had led our overnight futures down further.

However, my positions are mostly in small dollar stocks and they're running their own race at the moment.

Nerves got the better of me early on and I sold Gpt at 56.5 (v 59) and Mah at 58 (v 49.5). The Gpt was a good cut because the stock had reversed on Friday and wasn't bouncing this morning but I'm disappointed in Mah because I cut it without good reason and now it has rallied further to be trading at 62.5.

I've replaced these positions with Lynas Corporation and Paperlinx.

I paid 49.5 for Lyc as it started to accelerate away from a congestion area and I'm hoping for a push to new highs. It has had a spike to 54 and now, at 11.48 am, it's trading at 52.

Paperlinx is one I mentioned the other day. It obviously surged on Friday and I would like to have bought then on a break of 52. However, it has the look of a stock that could be moving into an expansive pattern so I paid 55 to get set.

I've increased the number of bars on the Ppx chart below. When I say that I think Ppx is in an expanding pattern what I mean is that the surge in February completed a leisurely retracement by early July. In Elliott wave terms it might be a wave 1 then a wave 2. If that's the case then we're early in a wave 3 which could quick move above the February high in the low 70s.

12.02 Out of Ost at 309 (v 306). Unfortunately, I missed the spike into the 320s that I was looking for which raises the issue of when to hold and when to cut. My general rule is to sell a third or a half at my target so I did have a brief window of opportunity on Friday. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed with some other business and missed the chance.

12.29 Also out of Fxj at 150 and 149.5 (v 152.5) as it also chops slightly lower.

3.21 I'm trying to decide whether to buy back into Stockland Group or not. I really like the weekly chart.... ...but when I look at the daily chart I can't quite imagine an explosive move. It's quite possible it will move slowly at first. I guess if it finished strongly on good volume that would be a clue.

3.49 Nearing the close, the ASX top 200 index is down 1.4% as regional markets also fall and the US overnight futures are weak. Here's the daily of the Xjo.

It looks super extended and due for a pullback but it has done for a week or so. However, when I focus on my stocks they seem to be charting positively for the moment. Also, when I drill down to look at the 60 minute chart of the Xjo, there's still a possibility that this is a retracement of the surge on Thursday and the gap open on Friday. If the index holds above the highs of early August there could be a completion type run up to a marginal new high.

4.12 The market closed on its lows, down 1.6%. Stockland failed to hold but I bought a small amount of Infigen on the close. They've got a lot of the old Babcock and Brown wind assets. I'm often reluctant to jump in when stocks have already run like this but at the moment there's usually good follow through buying so I've bought a small amount; half as an experiment and half to encourage me to develop the habit of buying the strong breakout. Here's the chart.