Finely poised. Wed Jul 28

Like Oliver Twist's Fagin, the market is reviewing the situation and has yet to make a decision. On the 30 minute chart of the ASX 200 index, below, it's clear that swing lows are starting to overlap previous highs, so momentum is fading. The late afternoon rally has eked out a few more points this morning, but while we sit below yesterday's early high of 4520, we run the risk of having an extended pullback as we did on, say, July 15th through to the 19th.

2.08 The Mexican standoff continues with the index having traced a leg down to support and another up to resistance so that we still have a rise of 14 points.

I'm not doing anything until the dust settles. Mbn has gone back into the congestion it broke out of, so I'm concerned about that but not willing to make a pre-emptive cut because the action is unconvincing.

4.10 The market kicked on to a new high just after 3 pm as it went through 4520, helped by more strength in the Shanghi index, I assume.

My long positions didn't rebound appreciably though but with the index closing at 4530, up 33 points, I'm reasonably confident now that we can push up for a day or two more.