Daytrading June 24 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares lurched towards their heaviest loss in at least ten months as early results from the UK's Brexit referendum fuelled wild swings on financial markets.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was down 162 points or 3.1% at 5118 after earlier rising as high as 5325 as traders responded to early indications the 'Leave' campaign might win a nail-biter on whether Britain should abandon the European Union. Latest figures from the BBC had the Leave campaign ahead at 9,106,764 votes to 8,645,694 for the 'Remain' camp. Read more here.

The defensive gold sector rallied 3.9% in a typical 'flight to safety' as US gold futures jumped $34.10 or 2.7% to US$1,297.70 an ounce. Elsewhere, it was carnage. The financial sector dived 4.2%, energy 3.7% and metals & mining 2.8%.

“We’ll keep swinging from joy to sorrow all day,” Takuya Takahashi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Japan, told Bloomberg. “We don’t have calm views, and investors are moving on short-term information.”

The pound dived after it became obvious that the 'Leave' campaign was closer to winning the day than most pundits predicted. Sterling slumped 3.2%. The Australian dollar caught some of the downdraft in 'risk assets' falling more than 2% to 74.52 US cents while gaining 3.7% against the pound.

US equity futures tanked. Dow futures were recently off 489 points or 2.7%. China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.32%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 3.39% and Japan's Nikkei 3.04%.

Crude oil futures dived $2 or 4% this morning to US$48.11 a barrel.


We live in extraordinary times. Fear and loathing around the planet. Nationalism and parochialism on the rise, Trump for President, and now it looks like Britain is pulling up the drawbridge. Shouldn't get bogged down in politics, but it's hard not to be troubled by current trends. Trading: Extraordinary morning. These days don't come along too often. Pity I made such a cow's rear of it. Been a clown shoes session. Bought CYB well but sold into the bounce about 20 pips too early. In and out of ADV for brokerage. Piffling profit in TAH. Missed CL8 and the bounce in RFT. Up a few hundred but should have done so much better in these conditions.