Daytrading June 2 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

The share market has once again ignored positive overnight leads, falling sharply for a second day ahead of this afternoon's Reserve Bank rate decision.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 51 points or 0.9% lower at 5683 after hitting a new one-week low this morning. For a second day, gold was the only sector to improve, gaining 0.4% as a deadline for a Greek debt repayment draws near. The biggest hits this morning were to industrials -1.5%, metals & mining -1.3%, materials -1.3% and consumer discretionary -1%.

Japan's benchmark index inched towards its best winning run since 1988. The Nikkei was lately up 0.07% and within reach of a 13th straight positive close. Dow futures were recently up three points or 0.02%. China's Shanghai Composite was up 1.14% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 0.34%.

Crude oil futures slid three cents this morning to US$60.17 a barrel. Spot gold was $4.30 weaker at US$1,186.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.33 US cents.


Successful trading is about spending years finding and refining an approach that works for you and then applying that knowledge day after day, year after year until you have a yacht or die or your wife/husband says you can stop. That's all very well, but doing the same thing every damn day gets tedious, so now and then I like to put on clown shoes and a red nose. Today was such a day. Instead of carefully applying the wisdom painfully acquired over 12 years of trading, I thought "Hey! PRR looks cheap! I'll buy that." Then I had the same thought about PBT, so I bought that too. Later, when the prices of both had fallen, my clown shoes and red nose didn't seem like such a good idea after all. I took them off and sold both shares at a loss. Then I painted on a sad face as a reminder of what I'd done (also it will save the need to reply when my wife asks how the day went. I'll just point.) I've since gone back to the tedious application of trading knowledge, which may or may not prove enough to turn a profit by the end of the day. Sad face.