ASX not juiced up like its American cousin

I’ve been noticing a trend. For years now, the mainstream media in Australia have been chanting the “6000 by Christmas” mantra. So much so, it’s been an ongoing joke between myself and friend of mine. “Christmas which year” we chuckle.

This year, the Aussie market has come tantalizingly close to the 6000 point mark but has, as it always seems to do, decidedly retreated from the elusive figure.

The little engine that could. Despite repeated attempts and all the hype, the All Ordinaries just can't break through 6000. I think I can, I think I can. 6 month chart courtesy of asx.com.au

As an example, the closing bell today saw the All Ordinaries drop another 44.4 points to 5747. This is significant as it represents a deviation from the liquidity injected, ever increasing American market.

I happen to hold BBOZ which is an Index short ETF with 2x leverage. It’s been sitting at a significant double digit percentage loss for many months in my portfolio but I’ve held it as a hedge against my dividend yielding long holdings.

Over the recent weeks, that strategy has paid off with BBOZ producing largely green trading days in my stock portfolio.

Like the Australian housing market, the share market here seems to have run out of puff and with typically large equity allocations a feature of retirement portfolios in this country, a reallocation may be smart at this point in time.