A quiet couple of days - DW has been hogging the laptop trading forex madly. After some big losses she clawed back almost to her previous high, before having another bad day today. She's still up a couple of hundred dollars overall, but has been up $700 on a couple of occasions. As my CFD trading account is currently in the red, I'm not in too much of a hurry to trade.

Meanwhile my new Dell PC arrived - plugging all the bits and pieces together went without a hitch, although I had one D'Oh! moment when I was wondering why the bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse weren't working when I turned on the screen and PC. After rechecking the setup instructions I noticed that you had to turn on the mouse and keyboard, not just insert the batteries! I'm not sure how long the batteries last in wireless mouses and keyboards - especially if I don't bother to turn them off when not in use.

I tried plugging my Optusnet cable modem into the new PC, but the internet setup wizard couldn't find the service. I'll check what the settings are on my laptop configuration, but if I can't work it out I'll have to call the Optusnet service desk tomorrow after work.

The wireless network router and USB adapter kit hasn't arrived yet from Mitec. Hopefully it will come in the next couple of days (it was on back order and expected to take 5 days from last Friday). The payment via Paypal was initially confirmed, but then the "eCheque" transfer from my bank account into Paypla failed (Paypal reports it as "insufficient funds" but it's actually because my ING online account will accept online deposits from anywhere, but will only transfer funds out into the original bank account I used to setup the INGdirect account). I expect Mitec will send me an invoice if they ship the order. If the order status changes to cancelled, I'll try to call their service desk to arrange alternate payment. I would have done this today, but their web site has a notice that they often don't answer the phone, and recommend contacting them via email. This payment issue is too complex to fix via email tag, so I'll wait and see whether they invoice me or if I have to contact them to make payment.

I received a dividend cheque from Ludowici for $195.75 with a $83.89 franking credit. As I've put in a request to redraw the undeducted, unrestricted, non-preserved $34,000 from my superannuation account, I won't be selling off my stock portfolios for a couple of years. I already have some put contracts on the All Ords Index in place to protect against any major declines in the Australian stock market between now and December, so I'll review my situation towards the end of the year.

The Australian stock market was down the last couple of days, but today it rebounded over 1% to set yet another "all time high".