Summer holidays. Thu Aug 19

It's an unseasonably lovely day in Sydney and I feel like a holiday too. The US is pretty much closed for business while the bigwigs swan around in the Hamptons and the knock on effect is that the Aussie market is drifting around in a small range like a hedge fund manager's neglected yacht. An hour and a half gone and the Xjo index is down 10 points. Of the top 20 stocks, 4 have reported today and it's a Victorian terrace of a performance with two up, two down.
I've put on another short position, this time in Transfield services. This had a slow choppy rally from late June to early August, followed by a quick plunge and a bungee jump bounce. It's just short of the early August highs and I'm punting that it fails to get through. Just short a few at 338 so far and hoping to sell more at 341.

1.28 We're the lagging market in the region, having fallen by 17 points on what is a mildly positive day elsewhere. No further trades, except to sell a few more Tse at 338 as they failed to bounce back into the 340s. Spot gold is still edging up and the gold stocks are mostly firmer although my last gold long in Sbm is becalmed.

Otherwise, Bhp is still bearing the brunt of making a large, hostile bid for Canada's Potash.

3.25 The Xjo index has fought its way back to square. I think we're just correcting last week's tumble and the medium term prognosis is for further weakness, but in the next day or two I'm leaning towards further strength. Here's a 60 minute chart of the Xjo index which shows a choppy rally.

The reason I'm slight bullish in the very short term is that the second wave of this correction seems to have traced out four waves with a fifth to come, perhaps peaking tomorrow.

4.13 The Xjo squeezed up to finish with a gain of 4 points.

I shorted a few more Ozl on the match at 125.