Not much of a honeymoon. Fri Jun 25

The honeymoon rally for Julia Gillard lasted about 2 hours before the selling resumed yesterday. Another double dip inspired fall overnight has left us down a further 1.1% after an hour. It's the fourth day down and the third big one, so it would often be a good day for some buying but on an intraday basis, the Spi looks as if it hasn't found a low yet.

I've bought back the last of my Stockland short at 371 and 373 for a tiny profit after having to cover an 11 c dividend and having gone too early with my position, I'm happy to have got something out of it.

I've got my obsessive compulsive World Cup watching under control. Last night I went to bed early, got a decent night's sleep at last and watched the recorded games this morning. Great result for Japan, beautiful football and excellent news, along with S Korea's progression, for the Asian Confederation of which Australia is now a part - and nice for the arguments with my European friends who always claim that their qualification groups are far superior than the Asian ones. 

Anyway, enough about South Africa 2010, the point is that I've got enough energy to focus on my work. Two new trades to feature today, one long and one short.

The long is in Challenger. The rejection of the low yesterday was impressive and there is nice overlap with the previous congestion zone, suggesting that short term selling momentum has dissipated. There have also been a string of upgrades overnight - the stock is on a forward PE of 7.5 - and it's a much cleaner company to analyse, no longer the dodgy boom time vehicle that it was considered to be. Long at 338 and it has already started to reverse quite strongly.

The other featured trade is a short position in Fmg. This might be a sell on fact situation after the driving force behind the company, Andrew Forrest, was heavily involved in the mining industry's campaign against the RSPT and indirectly, the deposal of Kevin Rudd. There's still going to be a deal on the tax, it's probably factored in, but the plan is certainly not going to be dropped. Short at 446 with a stop above yesterday's high at around 465. I'm half expecting a quick tumble here because it's a nice trading vehicle for hot money in the resources sector.

3 pm The market is just bouncing off recent lows and may have done enough for the day. The two featured trades are doing well so far, Cgf is at 359 and Fmg at 437.

Broadly, it's a switch out of resources into defensives sort of day, with gold being the exception as most of the golds in the Xjo are up. I suppose gold is often a defensive but sometimes it moves with the cyclicals. Seems like it's a win-win situation for gold stocks at the moment, although sadly not Mml which is stalled just below 450.

4.10 pm There was more slippage to leave the market down 1.5%. I'm out of a third of my Cgf position at 360 and a few Mml at 440 as they disappoint.