Small Caps in the US market - we might not be at the bottom reached in '01 but certainly looking like a great opportunity developing to look on the bright side of all the pessimism.

There will always be a reason to not be invested.

Here's an idea from Trading View member. The Trading Flowchart“This diagram explains the main steps to make before trading and opening positions, and how to identify the overall market situation to gain better results in most markets.”

Tuesday 04-Oct-2022: Have a look at the best and worst performers on the ASX today - according to Marcus Padley's EOD newsletter:

Now he doesn't cover really small stocks, probably not much outside of the ASX300 but I found this interesting. Here's how he summarised the day:

ASX 200 up a massive 242 points to 6699.3 (+3.8%) on rallying US markets and a surprise 25bps rise from the RBA. The market kicked higher after the less-than-expected rise, AUD fell, and 10-year yields tumbled to 3.72% Green across the screen with few exceptions. Financials fired higher with the Big Bank Basket up to $169.99 (+4.4%). MQG rallied 4.5%, insurers rose with QBE up 4.3%, and fund managers also joined in the fun. MFG up 5.2% and GQG up 7.3%. Healthcare blossomed, CSL up 1.5%, SHL up 2.9% and COH up 3.8%. Industrials fired, COL up 1.4%, EDV up 3.9% and TCL rallying 3.0%. REITs in demand on lower bond yields, GMG up 5.7% and SGP up 4.3%. Tech went nuts with the All-Tech Index up 4.8%, XRO up 6.3% and CPU up 2.9%. Resources also fired on all cylinders, BHP up 3.8%, RIO up 3.1% and base metals all good. IGO up 6.3%, PLS and other lithium stocks also doing very well, PLS up 12.3%, LTR up 9.3% and CXO up 11.8%. Gold miners did well too as bullion rose and the AUD fell. NCM up 6.3% and NST up 7.4%. Oil and gas better on crude rises. Corporate news took a back seat today, SYA rose 13.3% as it launched its PFS for NAL. PAR soared 19.8% on good news on its Phase 2 trials and EMV up 16.8% on ethics permission. On the economic front, it was all about the RBA. 25bps and the falling yields and AUD. Meanwhile, in Asia, Japan kicked higher as the USD fell with the Topix up 3% and the Nikkei up 3.1%. China still closed. Dow Futures are up 228 points. 

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But back to the tables above, it's interesting to note that when the market has "BIG MOVE" days, the smaller companies (the right side) always move by more than the ASX100 (larger) companies (on the left). Both up and down. Bigger moves at the smaller end of the market. Much greater volatility. Of the ten worst performing ASX100 companies today, all were in the green and they "only" rose by between +0.3% (Telstra) and +1.5% (Woolworths). The other 90% of the ASX100 (i.e. the other 90 companies) all rose by more than 1.5% today.

It was such a good day that companies like Firefinch (FFX), AVZ Minerals (AVZ), BWX and Dubber Corp (DUB), who are all suspended from trading currently so didn't trade at all, made the "Small Ords WORST PERFORMERS" list just by not trading at all, so not rising. Only 3 companies out of the entire Small Ordinaries Index lost ground today (Tyro, AMA Group, and Integral Diagnostics). Outside of the Small Ords, there were more that fell.

Of the 40-odd companies I hold across my 4 real-life portfolios, I had one that did nothing - Macmahon - MAH (unchanged at $0.15), and 3 that lost ground, Swoop (SWP) fell half a cent (or -1.28%) to $0.385, GR Engineering Services (GNG) dropped by 1 cent to $2.08, and Lycopodium (LYL) dropped -34c (or -5.01%) down to $6.45, after peaking at $7/share in the second half of September until they went ex-div for a 36c/share (fully franked) dividend on 21-Sep-2022. I gather there's been some profit taking since the 21st, and they're a low liquidity stock, so they can move a lot on small volume. Macmahon and Swoop were of course 2 of my 3 picks in the "FY23 Stock (Company) Picks" forum here. My other pick, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) rose +28 cents (or +1.65%) today, so by less than half of the market average (ASX200 up +3.75%, All Ords up +3.74%). Little wonder my lotto numbers never come up, eh!!

On the brighter side, my best performers today were EVS +16.67%, CMM +11.94%, CAI +9.80%, SBM +9.09%, GOR +8.77%, NST +7.43%, ARB +7.33%, RRL +7.30%, RMS +6.67%, XRO +6.28%, BGL +6.16%, CDA +5.78%, MIN +5.43%, 5GG +5.36%, S32 +5.34%, ALU +5.25% and MFG +5.20%. Those are companies I hold IRL whose SPs went up by over 5% today anyway. Bloody good day actually. Pity they are so far apart, days like these!!