Patchy but interesting. Mon Dec 20

The lead in for today's trading was almost non-existent although oil and base metals were firm. All of a sudden Christmas is upon us and the city is very quiet. I'd decided to do very little over the next two or three weeks and I started off well, getting out of three underperforming positions but then I've added two new ones.
Mostly the market is as dull as you'd expect but there are one or two stocks moving around which is why I've put on a couple of trades.
I stopped out of Qan at 260 as it broke below the last swing low at 261. I bought back a short in Ipl at 387, the sell off can't get any traction and it's rolling back up.

The best trade was to buy back the short in Paladin at 501 because they're now 514. As with Ipl, the sell off wasn't gathering any momentum and in hindsight, this would have been a good cut and reverse with a small buy signal following the break of 505.

Lost about 9c a share in Qan while I got out of the short positions in Ipl and Pdn for a fraction below breakeven.
I had to grit my teeth to buy Lynas again but Thursday and Friday's action showed the heavy selling pressure was gone (for now) and Friday's trade looked like a higher low. Long at 152.5 which is where it is now. It has been up to 155 and back to 151 in between.
My caution over Ausenco didn't work out and although I can make the case that the recent rally is just a 5th wave completion after a 4th wave consolidation in late November to early December, my take on the chart is that it's moving into a bigger pattern so that the recent consolidation was just base forming and this is early days in a decent acceleration. To recap, Aax is now out of the Asx 200 and maybe index funds are going to gradually sell it for the next week or so but there's probably going to be plenty of buying interest judging by the performance of Boart Longyear. It's not strictly comparable but shares the similarity of being a service provider to the mining industry. Aax supplies skilled manpower and it's likely that they are about to enter an upgrade cycle.
I don't generally chase these sort of breakouts but I'm prepared to have a wide stop. Long at 328 with stop way down at 275. Here's the daily.

Here's the weekly. The break above 300 was quite significant on this scale.

1.54 Easing down into holiday mode with most holdings - just longs now - doing alright. Exception is One Steel which broke support at 260. Unlike Qan where I stopped out, I'm holding on to this one. Stubbornness maybe. I don't really trust the action and the value seems too compelling. However, the flipside is that it doesn't have any momentum to run up either so I'm just hoping to get out on a retracement.

3.01 The index has rolled over and is down 18 after an early rise of 15. It's at the lowest level for over a week. Short term targets might be around 4700 or another 40 points or so.

4.08 Shanghai is the worst of generally weak Asian markets so perhaps that softness is helping to keep us under pressure.

4.11 Lynas had a strong afternoon and has finished on the highs at 160.5. I was having some buyer's regret in Aax because I don't often chase breakouts, but it stayed near the elevated levels at which I bought and closed up 18 at 326.

The index did the opposite and finished down 26 at 4737.