Beggar my neighbour. Wed Oct 6

The game of competitive devaluation continues with Japan launching their unexpectedly large version of quantitative easing yesterday and Australia coming to the party, the RBA's fear of more currency strength cited as one of the reasons for holding steady on rates. The easy money gave gold another kick up overnight and the US indices leapt too.
It's made for an interesting start to the trading day, the Xjo 200 is up 65 points at 4672 at 10.51 am and we're in sight of last week's high of 4698. It's still a possibility but I'm pretty much over my idea of a lower high and a longer correction. I think that the sharp 120 point drop late last week could have been all we're getting for now. There are more and more stocks moving into bull market mode with accelerating uptrends - nearly all gold or resources - and I get the feeling that there's money coming in from the sidelines.
Here are a couple of examples, Intrepid and Lynas.

I was recently trying to short Fortescue in the September congestion band. It has pushed out of that impressively and also looks as if it could accelerate in the style of the charts above. There's always a lot of scepticism around this stock but despite the recent run, it's still on a FY11 p/e of around 9 with FY12 at 7.
I wouldn't buy it today but will be trying to buy on weakness as long as it's holding a trend.

11.07 In terms of my existing positions, Sbm has pushed on with the gold price and I picked up some Pna at 67.25 yesterday and these are stronger too. The short in Ipl is up to 357 and I've sold more at 355.5 although I think it's quite likely these will stop me out.

I've gone long a few more resource stocks so I don't mind having some sort of hedge.

One of those longs is in Linc energy where I've bought stock at 181 to add to a small existing balance. These have had a very simple a-b-c correction and the reversal today is encouraging. It's a strange chart because it's been adjusted for a 10 cent dividend that was classed as a return of capital. If the recent high wasn't a top, it can also accelerate again because it would imply that we're early in another leg up.

12.12 Ipl just had a leap up to 365 which is last week's high so I'm close to stopping out already. Not what I wanted, especially as my longs aren't doing much. I've added another short too....glutton for punishment. It's in Boral at 458. At least this one is in a confirmed downtrend as I'm selling a correction after it broke down last week.

12.34 Woah, that was harsh. Licking my wounds as I've just cut Ipl at 368. I always assume I've paid the top in these situations (and so far, I have) but there you go. The dollar loss isn't bad, it's just the speed with which the market told me that I'm wrong.

2.54 The index is rising again after a mid day consolidation, up 82 points.

The nature of the market has changed in the last month or so, I've mentioned this before, and I'm finding that simple pullbacks are more common as the trends are getting steeper. I bought Wsa at 620 this morning on a continuation after a four day retracement. These are rubbish trades when the market is in a range but now it's a question of don't think too much. You're probably not going to get a longer correction.

And Ipl has been as high as 373 which makes me feel a bit better about my cut.

4.10 There were some large volumes in the match out, presumably a portfolio trade. The index still held most of the day's gains, finishing up 80 at 4687. It's very strong and gathering momentum. Recent weakness has been shrugged off in the blink of an eye.

Out of a few of the Wsa at 629. Otherwise an ok day but blemished by the Ipl surge and the feeling of missed opportunities. Eight stocks out of a watchlist of 26 rose by 4% or more. I was long 2 of them and short one.