When I'm making money, I love it and bore my friends with rhapsodies about the fascinating game of chess that is the global market. When I'm losing, I hate it and bore my friends with pathetic tales of woe and tiresome 'what if ' scenarios. This week, I am Bobby Fisher, Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov all rolled into one big gangster grandmaster of chess.

I began the week in bullish mood. The markets had pulled back in price last week, offering an ideal point to get on board after a rip-roaring August. So Monday morning saw me place an order to buy on a break of Friday's high point. Pawn to King Four I bought the Nasdaq at 1580, with each 1 cent move equating to a 20 euro gain/loss. I immediately placed my stop loss order underneath the morning's low point (around 1560). No need to worry on that score - by day's end, I was in the black and able to move my stop up to the breakeven point.

Tuesday was even better, with the Nasdaq finishing the day 2% higher.

Knight takes Queen.

Wednesday saw me sell half at 1620. The toughest thing about trading is protecting your profits while running your winners.

Taking a partial is my solution. I had expected to offload all of my position here as the Nasdaq is right up against its 200day moving average and its June high.

However, it's looking sufficiently strong to merit holding a little longer. Any weakness and I'll close out fully.

Apple provided some easy pickings this week also. I trade Apple frequently and am familiar with its movements, so I was quick to take a position the previous week when the stock pulled back to $70 (the stock had broken through resistance at $70 the day before. Old resistance points, once broken, tend to become new support levels, which is exactly what happened in Apple's case).

By Tuesday, it stood at $73. A number of big announcements were being made by the company on the same day.

Fearing a 'buy the rumour, sell the news', reaction, I sold half. As a general rule, only the naive buy into these news occasions - smart money takes positions in advance before deluging the market with selling on the day itself. In the circumstances, Apple held up very well, closing flat on the day.

I'm holding onto the remaining half until the market tells me to do otherwise. Steve Jobs' firm is doing everything right at the moment. Apple faces some resistance at $75, but after that, nothing until its 52week high at $85. We'll play a waiting game on this one.

The occasional catastrophe aside, Elan is a good stock to trade, tending to trend in easily identifiable patterns. Having lost a bit on it in August I went into a sulk for a couple of weeks.

But late last week saw a beautiful pullback trade set up, with the stock retreating back to its previous breakout point at $15.50 I waded in. At time of writing it has already rallied through $16.00 giving me my best week in months. . . Queen takes Bishop and mate.

Weekly gain/loss; + 1800 Overall balance; 26,800 Market Monkey is a recreational trader taking 25,000 and trying to expand it to a 100,000 bankroll so that he can give up the day job and trade full time. Send your thoughts or questions to marketmonkey@ tribune. ie and be sure to include 'Monkey' in the subject line