Spluttering to the line. Mon Dec 14

Another mildly positive night on European and US markets had left the road clear for us to undo some of our recent underperformance but the Xjo is lacking the firepower to rally at the moment. We're down 6 points at 11.21 am with the mixed signals continuing.
I closed out the last of my short position in Awc at 165.5 (v 165.25) as it spiked on the open. I've been hanging on for a minor new low and had actually been wondering whether I should close out since the risk/reward (I was only looking for a few more cents on the downside) was no longer in my favour and momentum had stalled. Although I could have done better here, I can learn from this one. I was looking for a 5th wave low but after a certain amount of time it's probably reasonable to assume that I'm either not going to see one or that the risk/reward equation is no longer in my favour.

11.33 Out of the last few of my Gff short at 154.5 (v 159.5). The rally a couple of weeks ago looks to me like the start of a bigger move, even if it's just a second similar rally. The short position was fairly opportunist, looking for a pullback to the starting point which is why I didn't put on a full position because I would have had to chase it down to get set. I'm happy to wait and see now and I'm hoping for a bullish set up.

12.10 Closed out the last of the short in Fxj at 164 (v 160). A little unlucky here, just missed buying it on the back foot at 160 and 161 this morning. Fairfax is an optional sort of buy here having made a higher low and pushed through Friday's high after grinding down for 6 days. I'm not enthusiastic though because my stop would be at 155 initially and it's in a trading range so I'm not convinced there's a lot of upside in the short term.

12.26 I closed out a long position in Mirvac Group at 146 (v 144.5) because I've been in it for 5 days, expecting an acceleration but instead it has chopped upwards a few cents. I felt uneasy about it because it looks more like a retracement so I figured that I'd given it enough time and would get out. Here's the chart.

12.51 The steels stocks are favoured by most analysts and are trading well below - about 30% - the average of analyst targets according to FNArena. I'm long a part position at 303 in Onesteel and I'm on the bid for the rest.

2.00 I closed out the last of the Tse short at 387 (v 399) as it continues to hold above 380. Ost is complete at 303. I've gone short Stockland Group at 388 on a bearish continuation, with the stock breaking Friday's low of 388 after a short retracement.

3.54 The market has had an afternoon recovery, rallying from a loss of 26 points to be up 8 now. The other steel stock, Bsl, is almost a buy now. My problem position is Fortescue. I realised that I'd chased this down too far when I shorted it so having acted in haste, I'm now repenting at leisure with the rational place for the stop at 444.

4.11 We finished on the highs with an index gain of 19 points. Another wishy washy day for me with a few going my way and a few against me. I might get buy signals in Aoe, Bsl and Lgl tomorrow.