daytrade diaries... friday part 2

Afternoon traders and welcome to a new thread.

Half-time round-up: the traditional Friday afternoon sell-off began early on the ASX today as traders ignored a generally positive reaction to the US government bank stress test results and focused on falls on Wall St overnight.

The XJO drifted steadily lower, recently trading down 25 points at 3913. Weakness in BHP weighed on the market but the banks provided support. Major Asian markets were generally lower but with minimal falls as traders wait for tonight's official US job reports and the reaction to news that 10 of 19 major banks will be forced to raise capital this year. US futures were recently up around 47 points.

It's been a quiet morning at HLL's humble trading croft. Scalps on NWH and CTX were abandoned too early to generate much more than pocket money, but a few points were made on the recent bounce in AWB. A swing trade in MTS is taking longer than anticipated to swing. (Swing damn you, swing.) I'm also part of the great throng of humanity in the OEX sell queue.

Good to see so many of you making a quid. Let's hope for some action this arvo.