Keeping it real. Thu Jul 8

A great lead overnight if you're bullish, with the US indices rising 3% on renewed optimism about bank profits and breaking back through the keenly watched 1040 level on the S&P 500 index. The Aussie market is not getting carried away with wild enthusiasm and despite a rise of just under 2%, the smaller resource stocks, which often lead the charge, are generally performing in line. It's the banks, reasonably enough, which are outperforming.
My only finance long was in Challenger and I sold out of that at 372 as the stock ran 5% early on.
I've got another new long in Incitec Pivot. I misread this one a couple of weeks ago but I'm having another go, using yesterday's low as a stop. The last drive down looks like it formed into 5 small waves and the reversal could jump up to 280 something quite quickly. Long at 264.

3.07 As noted earlier, it's not a crazy day in the smaller caps but the index has done quite well, holding a very tight range which should be supportive of further strength. The tone of the day is summed up by Anz being up 4% and Bhp 2%.

Just sold a few Bsl at 217. It's not a huge gain - long at 211 - but after rushing in and then being close to stopping out below 203, I'm quite happy to lose a few at this price.