Afternoon trading August 21

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Aussie shares wallowed near five-week lows after China cut borrowing rates by less than expected in an apparent display of confidence in its economy.

The ASX 200 eased 12 points or 0.16% by mid-session as declines in Westpac and most of the major miners outweighed advances elsewhere.

The Australian benchmark trimmed a sharper earlier loss after the People's Bank of China surprised the market by leaving the five-year prime loan rate unchanged and cutting the one-year rate by 10 basis points, rather than the 15 points expected by economists.

The dollar sagged on the news, falling 0.23% back under 64 US cents before recovering to 64.1 cents.

Personal trading: A4N would be about as vicious a stop-loss raid as I can recall. Broke overhead resistance on Friday (= buy signal = breakout traders enter), then gets smashed down double digits today. Evil. I bought in too early this morning and had to triple down before the ride back up. Lost some hair along the way.