What Was All the Fuss About?

China rebounds 4.5% and reminds the market that everything is just fine. Denials from CBRC and PBOC that any meeting was called on Tuesday to tighten policy buoyed the markets. HK saw a BNP upgrade and Korea was up a couple of percent on the creation of a bad bank for all the smelly stuff.

Predictably the Spoos followed suit as has Europe and it’s all proved a very good day for the Swiss government to offload their stake. The chat was that hedgies had been actively buying in the last week or so as they were fearful they wouldn’t get enough in the deal and this seems to have panned out with the book multiple times covered in a matter of hours.

Sterling is sharply unch today despite a deficit number coming in way ahead of expectations at 8bn vs estimates of 0.6bn. The better retail sales data however offset the negative borrowing figures and have ensured that GBP didn’t move much.

And so yet again, just as a trend looks as if it’s developing,it quickly reverses and smacks you in the face with a wet fish. It’s becoming slightly tedious and if each time didn’t look like “the one” then perhaps it wouldn’t elicit such a groan of “here we go again.” Trend following is not the way to profit in this range bound market, that’s for sure. It may not cost you too much if you run tight stops but it will cost you pretty much every time, until the trend breaks, which of course, if Mistress Market has anything to do with it, will be the one time you decide not to put the trade on.