I've looked at the index charts up, down and sideways and to my...

I've looked at the index charts up, down and sideways and to my mind the index itself could go up, down or sideways at the moment.

The XAO is sitting on key support and if it falls through we'll probably fall to the next support down (probably 3400, I don't think the XAO will drop below that). It hasn't happened yet and next week will hopefully give us some signals one way or another.

If it can break through 4100 and stay there, next step will hopefully be 4500 and above. But a break of 4500 could still be a way off yet (with luck by the end of the calendar year).

In the US the job stats were awful, but half the unemployment rise was from the ending of the census contract workers (more than 50,000 of them). I don't know why the analysts don't find out about such things - unless they did and figured there'd be far fewer jobs lost even so.

In the US as well, the manufacturing / factory numbers are starting to look up. If this trend keeps going then it should flow through soon enough and eventually translate into more jobs.

Various governments (ie USA etc), including some of ours (ie NSW), are starting to put up trade barriers which are fairly mild at the moment, but could have a detrimental effect if they continue. (California relies on government by the uninformed (endless plebiscites for every minor and major decision) rather than any leadership. So it remains a basket case. If it stopped jailing for life every Tom, Dick and Harry for misdemeanors it would save heaps - and generate more tax income.)

Our house prices are still too high, even though housing is scarce. When interest rates go up again it will put downwards pressure on house prices and slow the recovery. So we could be in for a flattish market for a couple of years at least.

In all, the signals are mixed with some signs of life mixed with the obvious signs of difficulty.

To answer the original question: I'm up 50% since last October when I re-entered the market, but down 6% since mid-June (including costs of trades). I'm 90% in shares and 10% in cash(of my portfolios). I'm very much a novice still and don't have nearly as much to play with as some on HC, but keen to build up a nest egg - which is not going too badly, but could have been a lot better if I'd been wiser about trades in the past six months. I trade short to medium term, and trade long only - 8 to 15 stocks at a time including longer term holdings; and don't do day trading. And use TA plus some company and market research to inform trades.

It seems to me there are ample trades out there regardless of the direction of the overall market - albeit need for care.

Apologies for the long-winded ramble, just whiling away a wet Saturday arvo in anticipation of the start of Le Tour :)