daytrade diaries... october 29 part 2

Half-time round-up:

The Australian stock market is heading for a fourth day of losses after hitting its lowest level in almost four weeks.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 94 points or 2.01% at 4591 as softening resources prices saw the mining sector tumble 3.5%. Financials fell 2.3%, materials 3.2%, gold 3.5% and property trusts 3.1%. Safe-haven sectors benefitted, including health (+1%), telecoms (+0.2%) and consumer staples (+0.5%).

In economic news, new home sales sank 4.5% last month, according to data from the Housing Industry Association, but home prices increased 3.7% in the third quarter.

Asian markets followed Wall Street lower. Japan's Nikkei lost 1.97% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 2.17%. Dow futures were mildly positive at +10. The spot gold price inched nearly $4 higher to $1031.60. Crude oil futures were flat at $77.18.


A good morning's scalping here, with most of the gains coming in the first half-hour. Placed buy orders before the market opened and captured decent bounces in AOE, TSE, TAP and DOM. Also AAX for peanuts. One dud trade in MOL - overpaid and exited at stop-loss.