Walking and looking

It's a mildly positive day for the Asx 200 with a bounce of 27 points at 2.28 pm. The index has chopped around between gains of 0.5 and 1% all day after the US market rallied, helped along by reports of a much enlarged European rescue fund which turned out to be false. Despite that, US futures are down under 0.5% in overnight trading. The DJIA made a marginal new high after having appeared to have topped out the day before so I'm glad that we haven't followed suit although it could happen tomorrow, of course.

It's another day of watching for me and I've occupied myself by going for a walk to one of the local art galleries and having a look at the 19th and early 20th century works. I noticed that my eye sight was sharper on the way back than on the way there. It probably sounds strange that I should be aware of it but I have a weak prescription for short-sightedness and I try to limit how much I wear my glasses, wearing them only for driving and watching TV. When I left the office, I noticed that everything seemed a bit blurry but the return journey was quite different. I think it's because staring at the screens gets boring for the eyes while looking at interesting art is a tonic. Certainly, the advice for tired eyes is to vary your focal distance; look at close and distant objects just as you would if you were living a less "civilised" life.

I though I might be obliged to cut yesterday's new short position in TOL but it's only up a cent at 472.

I've been short Boral since last Thursday. I got set at 365 on what turned out to be a retracement rally and yesterday the stock traded as low as 334. I was tempted to buy back at 335 but decided that I need to develop the habit of leaving well enough alone. The stock is the outperformer among my short positions but although it has traded through yesterday's high, the little down trend looks as if it should have further to run. Ideally, it would make a new low but realistically, the slow turn it has been making implies that it might have bottomed. Hence, I'll be looking to square up at about 330 if it turns down again.