Holding the line

If the rally holds, Flash Rabbit will be very happy indeed. Here's a breakdown of his current situation. As usual, lots of little bets in small amounts - far too much - does his head in when things start to go pear-shaped - but it's still working, so he's not stopping for now. His fund is up around 20% so far today so he's not complaining.

Gold

Very short from 977/975 on both spot and Aug and Oct futures - this has been extremely profitable this afternoon - thus far gold has broken back down below the 950 mark and Flash thinks that it could have much further to go - if it's going to keep pace with the rest of the commodity complex. Of course there could well be some more nasty results/energy crises/hurricanes/unexpected resource shortages to push the market into a screaming reversal but on the evidence of today's reaction to Wachovia, which would probably have triggered a meltdown a month ago, Flash is beginning to think that these sort of issues are already priced in. On the other hand he would prefer to have the comfort of a few short equity positions but hasn't managed to hold any of them for long enough to be worth it (he had the usual go at Thomas Cook, Dexia and HBOS at the tail end of last week, made a few quid, but pulled out when they threatened to fight back). Right now his plan is to try to hold his view long enough to build up some room for manouevre rather than just chopping in and out in his usual impulsive way.

FTSE and Dow

Both long and holding up well despite some wobbles when the Wachovia car crash was revealed. As for Apple, well, if Flash had any cash he'd buy some at a price of 150 a share or thereabouts - people may be greedy for even more profit but he can't see any reason why the shares should have got that cheap. Amex was a short he should have seen coming.

Equities

Long and firmly in the money on BA (up10%), Citigroup (a risky one this, but hey! up 10%), Barclays (up 18% from 261) Black's Leisure (tents and camping - up 3%), Firstgroup (up 5%), Ford (up 20%), Intel (up 5%), Kingfisher (up 18%), Scottish and Southern Energy (up 3%). narrowly missed out on a killer trade in United Airlines (UAL corp) today - took it up to 600 and then decided he'd had enough of a punt only to see them soar on to 730. Oh well.

Long and still not in the money on ASOS (down but off recent lows), BT (jumping around the 195 mark), D1 Oils (flat), Axeon (bumping around and not doing much), Stanelco (Flash is beginning to give up hope), Lonrho (not doing a lot) and Workspace Group (an outside shot at London's commercial/SME/creative industries property market).

Currencies

Although he's been punked out of these trades numerous times, Flash just can't say no. Short EUR/USD and short EUR/JPY. Today has been a monster but he will have to wait to see if the dollar can hold this level. The question he wants answered - can anyone enlighten him? - is why on earth is the euro staying so high? And what caused the breakdown in the euro today? Just a little hint from the Fed that interest rates might rise plus oil pulling back and the dollar goes wild? If so he thinks there's a hell of a lot more mileage here.

But Flash is ever alert to the possibility that there will be a screaming reversal. For now though he's holding out for a longer rally. With every day that passes his margins get a little bit safer and his nerves become a little bit calmer.