DOG: bought today

Expecting the Dow Jones Industrial Index to fall, I bought the ETF ProShares Short Dow30 (NYSE:DOG) today at USD 51.84

ETFS Brent Oil: bought today

Speculating on a rising price of crude oil, I bought the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) "ETFS Brent Oil (OILB)" at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) at USD 43.82

DOG: sold today

The trailing stop for DOG was activated today and my shares were sold at 51.42667, a loss of 4.8% in 20 days.

DOG: trailing stop sell order

I give a sell order for DOG with a trailing of 5%

Reverse ETF on Dow Jones Industrial Index: bought today

Speculating on the Dow Jones Index to fall, I bough the ETF ProShares Short Dow 30 (NYSE:DOG) today at 53.9999

Gold EETF: bought today

I bought the gold ETF Spdr Gold TR Gold (NYSE:GLD) today via E*Trade at USD 120.31

ZKB Gold ETF: bought today

Gold will go up, I figured, and bought ZKB Gold ETF (ZGLD) today at CHF 4,045.

Gold ETF: bought today

I bought the gold ETF Spdr Gold (NYSE:GLD) today via Ameritrade at USD 115.4699

Holcim: sold today

I didn't like the way the price of Holcim (SWX: HOLN) has been falling in the past few days and sold it today at CHF 75.60, at a profit of 3.3% in 26 days.

Holcim: bought today following buy signal

After the stock closed above the trendline yesterday I bought Holcim (SWX: HOLN) at the open today, at CHF 73.20

Sonova: bought today

I didn't quite trust the buy signal for Sonova (SWX:SOON) three days ago but the closing price has remained above the trend line since then and I now bought it at the open today at CHF 121.60

Quadrant: takeover

The takeover offer went through and I got CHF 86.00 per share, causing me a loss of 59.3%

Holcim: getting close to a buy signal

After missing out on the last few rallies on Holcim (SWX: HOLN) I am now keeping a closer eye on it. Will it give a buy signal at the end of today.

Watching Holcim

I haven't followed Holcim (SWX: HOLN) for a long time and now see that I missed the start of a rally on 15 July 2009.

Novartis produces H1N1 flu vaccine

The stock price is rising today following the announcement that Novartis produces a first batch of a vaccine for the H1N1 flu, known as swine flu, for clinical trials. Novartis hopes to have the vaccine approved for sale by the end of the year.

Qadrant: Aquamit takeover offer

The takeover offer is now official. Quadrant sent me a letter to shareholders giving details of the bid. Aquamit offers CHF 86.00 per share. That's a bit lower than the range of CHF 86.65 to CHF 90.00 at which the stock has been trading today so far.

Quadrant: take-over bid

Aquamit B.V has made a take-over bid for Quadrant. Aquavit was incorporated in the Netherlands by the Japanese company Mitsubishi and four members of the board of Qadrant specifically for this take-over.

The offer is CHF 87 per share, far below my cost of CHF 211.50 on 4 September 2007.

Yesterday, the price shot up from the previous close of CHF 70 to a high of CHF 90 and today so far the stock has been trading between CHF 89 and 90.

Sold ABB

ABB (SWX: ABBN) stopped out at CHF 26.14 shortly after the open today. Loss 10.0% in 7 days.

ABB: received refund

Yesterday, my broker credited me with a refund of CHF 0.48 per share on the purchase af ABB (SWX: ABBN). This reduces my cost per share to CHF 29.04 and I change my stop-loss order to CHF 26.14.

The price has gone down since I bought the stock on Friday but yesterday closed for the first the time above the open and today for the first time did not close below the open in the first 30 minutes of trading.

Evaluating ABB

Yesterday, there were a lot more sellers than buyers for ABB (SWX: ABBN) from the outset and throughout the day but after the fiasco with Sonovan (SOON) I dared not risk giving a limit buy order. Today, before the open, sellers again far outnumber buyers and it will interesting to see how the price goes.

ABB has put a statement regarding the arrest of one of its employees on their website:

"ABB statement regarding Libya

Zurich, Switzerland, July 23, 2008 – ABB confirms that a Swiss employee is currently being detained by the Libyan authorities.

The ABB office in Tripoli has been temporarily closed. ABB is working closely with the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seek a rapid resolution of the issue. Given the current situation, ABB will not be providing any further information."

According to an article in today's CASHdaily the price dropped not because of Kadhafi's antics but because the net profit for the second quarter was "only" 34% higher than last year. Apparently, the analysts had expected more.

It was a mistake to buy the stock before the earnings report and the usual selling frenzy that followed it.