The sudden drop in the stock market last week was enough to turn even seasoned investors into a herd of nervous Nellies.
It steadied pretty quickly, but the Aussie dollar gold price on Friday rose above $2200 an ounce, up by a third in the past 12 months. That's higher than any time in the last 10 years.
The gold price is usually a good measure of how nervous the Nellies are, and the current price is a bit of a worry.
The Punter is not about to panic but he is taking the opportunity to lock away some more profits by selling 20,000 of his 50,000 shares in Crop Logic (ASX code CLI).
Crop Logic has been riding high mainly on the strength of its decision to start farming hemp in the US.
Given the wobbly state of the market the Punter is in no hurry to reinvest the money.
He is, however, still looking hard at the emerging sulphate of potash miners, and has placed a cheeky bid for 20,000 shares in Australian Potash (APC) at 8 cents.
At the time of writing they were selling at 11c, close to their 12-month high.
Australian Potash last week upped its estimate of its resource by just over 25 per cent to 18 million tonnes, as part of its definitive feasibility study.
An earlier scoping study suggested it could produce 150,000 tonnes a year for the first five years, and then double that for the next five years from its Lake Wells project in WA.
However, the company's cash at this stage is tight.
It raised $4.2 million in March with a three-for-14 shares offer at 8c, but by the end of June had only $1.95 in the bank.
The tax office has since given it $1.3 million in the form of a research and development refund, but the company expects to spend $2.58 million in the current quarter.
Doesn't leave much for tea money by the end of September.
- The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies featured in this column.
