Preconceived notions. Wed Jan 27

Looking at trading for the last couple of days I noted that gold had been holding well and I expected Lihir Gold to rally against my short position. I was so relieved to see it fall with the general market that I bought back the last 8000 at 302 for a profit of 1480 on that portion and 2460 overall less 33 costs. I wasn't actually paying enough attention to the chart which was showing a break of short term support and I've missed the chance to buy back cheaper with Lgl at 295 having had a low at 293.

12.54 The market is making its first effort to rally after a 90 point fall not helped by slightly higher than expected CPI figures for Q4 2009. There's been an acceleration of the switching out of resources with Fortescue, Paladin and Alumina particularly hard hit of the stock I follow.
I've shorted a part position in OZ minerals which is predominantly copper and although I have some misgivings because it's not far away from good support at 112, the downtrends in resource stocks are quite established and most are failing to hold support.
I'm short 20,000 Ozl at 113.5 with the stock just ticking back up to 115.

2.53 Actually the worst thing about the Lgl trade was that I quickly realised that it wasn't going to bounce and could have reshorted for only a cent or two against me, except for the fact that now I have to send off an email and wait for up to half an hour before finding out whether I can short something by which time.... So thanks a lot to all the rumourtrage P traders who brought us this situation.

3.05 I had a strange situation in Challenger. It had ground lower from 408 to 394. I bought back 1500 shares at 395 due to the large fall as a prudent little trade when it reversed rapidly to be at 410, up 2 on the day. I got nervous about some corporate action and bought another 1500 at 405 (so 3000 at 400 ave. for a profit of 450) but it's back to 400 as if nothing had happened. Just a little squeeze I guess.

4.18 The market chopped around mostly after the first two hours, trying to rally and then sliding back into the close for a loss of 73 points. I finished Ozl with the sale of another 20k at 113.5. Cgf closed at 405.