Afternoon trading August 20

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew. Thanks also for all the Viewpoint advice this morning. Apologies for taking up so much air space on this morning's thread.

Half-time wrap:

The ASX 200 regained the 8000 level for the first time in almost three weeks after Wall Street's powerful win streak extended into an eighth session overnight.

The Australian benchmark traded as high as 8025 before paring its gain to 20 points or 0.25% at 8000 mid-session. Mining, utility, tech and healthcare stocks powered the index towards an eighth straight gain.

The minutes from this month's RBA policy meeting confirmed the central bank remained hawkish on rates. The board debated raising or holding the cash rate target before opting to leave it unchanged at 4.35%.

"In finalising the Board’s statement, members agreed that it was important to convey that the information received since the previous meeting had reinforced the need to remain vigilant to upside risks to inflation and that monetary policy will need to be sufficiently restrictive until members are confident that inflation is moving sustainably towards the target range.

"They also agreed that, based on the information available at the time of the meeting, it was unlikely that the cash rate target would be reduced in the short term, and that it was not possible to either rule in or rule out future changes in the cash rate target."

US stocks rose for an eighth session overnight as traders bet on rate cuts next month. The S&P 500 firmed 0.97%.


Personal trading: Been able to trade using Marketech, but finding it harder to "read" the market without Viewpoint. Spent the morning frantically creating new scans, but it's frustrating reinventing the wheel because Iress can't get their act together. Caught a part-fill in BAS and a pip from the low in VR1. Was in the right place for LRV but no fill. Wanted DRE, same problem.