Petrol on the fire

It was concerted central bank action to the rescue last night and the Asx 200 has responded with a relatively subdued rise of 2.3% or 96 points at 2.21 pm. I was a slightly reluctant buyer last night but there were no short signals and one more marginal long in KAR that I didn't take on top of the two that I did. The index has recovered the 4200 level and largely ruled out any short term 5th wave down to a new low under 4000.

PDN is my best performer, up 7.5%, while RSG is the worst with a rise of under 1% and trading at 197.5 compared to an early level of 207. There's not much for me to do. I had a couple of target based offers close to dealing early on in BLD and RSG but the stocks hit their peak quickly and I'm well above the market. Otherwise, it's a question of holding onto winning positions. I suppose I could look to sell out of RSG as it has been a big reversal day but I'd rather use the low set on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In retrospect, it can be hard to see why you didn't take obvious trades but it's usually because you can't imagine the market moving and you talk yourself out of it. It takes a leap of faith to be like Sergeant Schultz and say, "I know nothing". Here's QAN. When you find a bar that breaks the previous low then trades and finishes above the previous high and the market has been trending hard then you're a strong chance of having a good reversal trade. I thought myself out of this one.

And here's another one in WSA.

It's encouraging in one way; it's easy to throw up your hands this year and say, "It's all too hard", because politicians have hijacked stock markets but there are good opportunities, day in and day out or at least, week in and week out.

4.14 It was hard to buy again after a strong run today of 109 points but I went long some KAR at 494 with a stop at 456. There wasn't enough of a move yesterday but the breakout today is quite strong and the stock has been outperforming recently.

RSG finished down 1 at 195 so it could be D day for that one tomorrow.