Saddling up. Tue Nov 2

After weeks of phoney trading, the start of some significant action is approaching. On the local front, Melbourne is closed for the cup but we have the RBA announcement due at 2.30 pm. Then tonight, it's the midterm elections in the States with news on QE2 coming through the following night.
Although the final result was another flat night in the US, the actual trading was much more interesting with early strength evaporating before a late fightback to breakeven. Chinese, UK and now US manufacturing figures were all a little stronger than anticipated but the US didn't drop back on economic and US dollar recovery initially. The selling came through later.
It's early days, 10.23 am, and my strategy is to keep things tight and wait for real direction. The market is down 11 points.
Iau had a speeding ticket overnight, of sorts, after the big fall yesterday and they could only come up with the profit taking explanation after outperformance of an already strong sector. The stock sold back down on the open and I bought a few for another day trade at 148. Here's a 10 minute chart. I'm not usually trading in this time frame nowadays but it seems like an ok opportunity and I'm targeting 158 to 160.

11.04 The 10 minute chart died on its run so I sold the Iau at 152, 152.5.

I just bought some Mml, another gold stock, at 553. They're close to some minor support around 545 and were sold down 6% early on low volume. Here's the daily. This is just another short term trade.

2.09 Back from a physiotherapy appointment. Mml went as low as 538, I bought more earlier on, averaging 550. The stock is back to 544 and I'm not so worried about them, it's a thin day and the risk reward is probably ok.

Meanwhile, Aru has dropped back 10 to 128 on news that their major shareholder, East China Exploration, has turned down the opportunity to be involved in the placement. It's possible that they were more concerned about regulatory hurdles than reluctant to buy more stock but whatever the reason, it looks like support at 124 will be tested again. I'm keen to jump in and buy some but I have some placement stock so it may be smarter to wait for a day or so.

Lynas is soft as well and is close to support also. 

2.36 The RBA have sprung a surprise with a 25 bp rise in rates after benign inflation figures had led the market to rule out a hike. The Aussie dollar has made the clearest move, rising about a cent to 99.8 but the share market is not so weak, just down 9, having previously made its way back into the black.

2.42 Down 5 now. Half the market is away and there's also the possibility that the strengthening AUD encourages more buying in our market and that the rate rise is not such an issue.

4.13 The index closed up 3 points. The wait is almost over, just one more day and even so, it may offer opportunities with some US election results and jockeying ahead of QE2.

I sold a few more Awe, Mmx and Pna as per the plan although the trade in Mml was unscheduled. It closed down almost 9% at 539. As far as I can tell, there is no negative news out, valuation is excellent and it's still close to support; however, it's a volatile, thinly traded stock so I'm assuming it's a Melbourne cup day anomaly and I'm hopeful of a nice bounce tomorrow. Gold stocks were generally firmer too.