Solid as a Roc. Tue Oct 13

A quiet night in the US as it was Columbus day but the European and US indices were firm and after two days of consolidation I'm pretty confident that we're going to keep the gains. It's 11.30 am and the market is holding onto a 44 point advance. I've sold out of Csr at 196 (v 195) because I got onto it a bit late and I've found more interesting trades and Mre at 102 (v 100.5) as it's still stalling and if it's not going up I probably want to get out.

Esg, which I highlighted yesterday, has pushed on to 96. I'm long at 95.

Roc is up 2 at 66.5 and I bought some at 66. It's starting to accelerate and it seems like it's representative of a lot of the small resource stocks which have underperformed for the last couple of months and may be due for another few days in the sun.

Western Areas has broken through previous lows at 504 and I've bought more at an average of 502.7. It's at 505 having reached 508.

I'm also watching Straits Resources quite closely for a trade above 164.5. This had a sharp rally which pushed through previous lows implying that the downtrend was over. It looks like it could have a second push up and I'm hoping it will be as robust as the previous surge.

12.46 I've just bought some Ost at 322 and I'm getting uneasy because I've now got 5 positions and I'm keen on Aoe and Srl as well. Ost has actually made a new high while Srl and Aoe (not shown) are still some way short but Srl looks explosive and I'm willing to buy on a break of yesterday's high. In the end, I might buy them all, as I'm short of my dollar limit, and look to discard the weakest stock or the first one to hit its target. Also, I suspect that the whole sector is going to rally so a broad approach is not unreasonable.

2.41 Srl has pushed on and I'm long at 165. Now long, Cvn, Esg, Ost, Roc, Srl and Wsa.

3.47 Sold out of Ost at 323 (v 322) just to reduce the number of positions. Srl is doing well, up at 169 now. Also, sold a couple of Wsa at 505 (v 502.7) and Cvn at 59 (v 56.5) to take a couple of bucks off the table.

4.10 I feel dumb to have stopped Ost as it does look good but then again there are a bunch of buy signals today and I just bought Lnc at 174.5 on the match as it has lots of room to manoeuvre.

Once again, long 6 stocks which are Cvn, Esg, Lnc, Roc, Srl and Wsa. The market closed up 46 points - barely changed after the first half hour.