Mixed business. Thu Sep 23

The S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 both fell around half of one percent and the local futures opened sharply lower but nobody was going to knock the market down through key support on such a flimsy pretext so at 12.30 pm, the Xjo 200 index is just down 4 points which is where it has been for the last 2 hours.
Base metals were bid up last night as obvious beneficiaries of quantitative easing and there has been an attempt to rally here and there but no massive enthusiasm. For example, Alcoa traded up 4% in the US but Alumina is up 2 cents or 1%. The iron ore stocks are ok, Fmg is still pushing up a little while Murchison (damn!) is the best of them as they are up to 187 after announcing a resource upgrade.
Meanwhile the gold stocks have stopped following the gold price (in US dollar terms) up and are mixed.
My featured trade is another short position in Oz minerals. I'm short a few at 147 and hoping to sell a couple more at 149. I'm looking for a lower high or perhaps a marginal new high here, but basically I think that momentum has stalled and it should pull back. My stop would be in the low 150s and I'm looking for a move to the mid 130's.

1.08 I knew there were holidays this week but hadn't realised the extent of them. The Japanese, Chinese and Korean markets are closed today which perhaps explains the lacklustre session that we're having as the index climbs gently into the black for the day.

I'm mainly short but have somehow made a couple of dollars thanks to Djs being sold down another 9 to 501. I also traded a few Lynas from the long side earlier on until their rally faded.

2.34 The market isn't really going anywhere, except for Fmg which is still pushing higher. I'm trying to pick a top here, as I am in Ozl, so it's tricky. My feeling is that it's very thin trading and it's possibly an attempt to squeeze some shorts out of their positions. Here's the chart.

4.15 The market closed up 8 and I didn't do too much. Fortescue eased to 499, I bought a couple of Djs back at 500 on the match. That's about it.

The market has now had 6 sessions in a tight range since hitting 4670 last week. The fact that we haven't had much of a retracement yet is making it more probable that we pop up higher before we can fall. This happened in early August, although the congestion was only 3 days then. I like my short positions and I'm inclined to hold them but I might have to widen the stops to cater for a marginal new high.