The sceptical shopper. Mon Sep 20

More market participants are turning bearish and while the US was flat overnight, the Australian market settled down around 0.7% or about 32 points. I can see that momentum is disappearing and I'm in the bearish camp but I don't see a top yet so the sell off looked overdone, at least as long as the Xjo 200 holds above the 4590-4600 range.

Which is how I found myself doing some buying earlier on. I added to my Qantas position at 265 and sold out half of the extras at 268 and Linc looked ready to resume after a congestion period and I jumped the gun slightly, buying at 180. This has worked out with the stock running up to 187.

1.05 The index is flirting with further falls but is just hanging on.
My two steel longs, Bsl and Ost, are square after adjusting for a 5 cent dividend and down 2 respectively. They're both trades which are predicated on the index chopping higher as the market peaks. If we've already seen the peak and the market is about to break support then I'll need to be quick to chop these.
Linc is a different story, the rest of the coal assets are up for auction and today's action suggests that an announcement may be close. And Qantas is a stock which has the ability to rally in a falling market given the strength of the AUD and the employment situation in Australia which is strong with gradually increasing consumer confidence. Obviously my long position in Qan is chart based but, like everyone else, I like to have a story to hang on the trade.

3.06 Support held and the index has recovered to be at 4618, down 20.
I've added Awe to my list of stocks that I want to short on a (minor 2 or 3 percent) rally, along with Fxj and Fmg.
It's the weakest of the three.

4.17 The final figure for the Xjo 200 was 4631, a drop of just 7 points.

Awe recovered a little and I shorted about a third of what I'm aiming for, at 161.