Fingertips. Tue Feb 9

The market is desperately trying to hold the 4500 index level and has clawed its way back to the 4490s after opening lower. My take is that it won't manage to hold but that we are close to the end of this wave of the sell off.
I've got a featured trade today, at least, in Lihir Gold. So far, I've bought 10,000 at 281. I'm taking the view that this is a tradeable retracement rally because there was a big drive down from 350 to 270 and the first real resistance is at 311.

Click to enlarge

12.02 The market is tumbling into the ravine, now down 44 points at 4477. Unfortunately, Cey is hanging in there at early support so I bought 2,500 back at 348 for a little 150 dollar profit because I'm going to be out of the office later for an hour or two. Boral is also defying gravity, sitting unchanged at 548.

Of my stocks Challenger has been the hardest hit over the last few days and although I've made a few dollars on the short side with intraday trading, I could easily have cleaned up with some overnight positions. When stocks are in a steep down trend, I tend to leave them alone if not already short. Here's the Cgf chart.

Macquarie Group has also been suffering and is heavily down today, partly because of disappointing (though improved) guidance but I expect it's also a play on the withdrawal of the wholesale funding guarantee.

12.26 It's reporting season of course and I've been referring to my trading calendar regularly although I managed to forget about Awc which probably explains the rally yesterday. Boral reports tomorrow but I'm willing to hold on to my short, I think it's probably the factor that's helping the stock to outperform over the last couple of days and the risk/reward favours the downside. I do have a small buy lower down though, I'm willing to reduce position size a little if I don't have to pay up for the privilege.

3.28 Back from my appointment and like Lazarus, the market is back from the dead. Now down only 15 points and above 4500, 4506.

4.13 The finish was about the same level at 4505. The only addition was to buy another 10,000 Lgl at 284, making 20k at 282.5.