Daytrading June 14 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares plunged to a five-week low this morning as Australia played catch-up with a global flight to safety over the Queens birthday long weekend.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 103 points or 1.95% weaker at 5210, a level last seen in the first week of May. The energy sector led the retreat, diving 3.5% after a sharp pullback in crude oil and other risk assets ahead of next weeks UK referendum on leaving the European Union and central bank meetings in the US and Japan this week. Other notable falls included financials -2.6%, health -2.6% and IT -2.4%. The gold sector, a traditional haven in times of elevated volatility, gained 2%.

“To survive and thrive as a trader we simply have to adjust to volatility,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. “The key consideration here is what happens if we do actually see a ‘leave’ vote [in the UK referendum] and a sudden shock to markets. What have central banks got in the kitty this time around? The answer, of course, is significantly less than in prior cycles.”

A mixed morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite edge up 0.13%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edge down 0.01% and Japan's Nikkei slide 1.25%. Dow futures were recently off one point or 0.01%.

Crude oil futures slumped another 51 cents or 1% this morning to US$48.37 a barrel. Gold futures were $2.10 or 0.16% softer at US$1,284.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.91 US cents.


Risk markets around the world were due a retrace and have the perfect excuse in the Brexit vote. I don't see any great cause for alarm yet, although a 'leave' vote would certainly make life interesting. Close though the polling may be, I suspect when it comes to the crunch UK voters will stick with the status quo, as they nearly always do in referendums. Meantime it will be interesting to see how well the specs hold up. Trading: wild morning, with not a hint of a bounce on the index. MNS has been giving me conniptions - average entry price was higher than necessary, although my pulse is now closer to normal. Traded BAR twice. Also took IAG for no return and HXG.  Not a vintage performance. Difficult conditions.