* Profit-taking and stops help lend dollar support
* Talk of Japanese investor selling in Aussie
* Dollar/yen hovers above 15-year low
* Japan finmin says to take decisive steps if needed
By Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The dollar edged higher on Friday, pulling away from a 10-month low hit against a basket of currencies the previous day as investors trimmed short positions in the greenback following its recent slide.
The Australian dollar fell 0.4 percent to $0.9898, pulling away from the previous day's 28-year peak of $0.9994, and the euro faltered after hitting its highest in more than eight months against the dollar on Thursday.
The dollar has slid over the past month on heightened market expectations for the U.S. Federal Reserve to unveil a second round of quantitative easing as early as November.
"Market players who had piled up one-sided positions such as selling the dollar, on the back of a trend toward U.S. monetary easing are probably locking in some profits," said a trader for a Japanese bank.
A rise in U.S. Treasury yields the previous day may be another sign of such position unwinding, he added.
The dollar index rose 0.2 percent to 76.808, pulling away from a 10-month low of 76.259 hit the previous day.
The euro fell 0.5 percent to $1.4017, retreating from an eight-month peak of $1.4123 hit on trading platform EBS on Thursday.
Traders said the euro's drop gained added momentum after triggering stop-loss offers at around $1.4040, near the previous day's intraday low.
There was some talk that Japanese investors were selling the Australian dollar, with stops seen below $0.9890.
The dollar edged up 0.1 percent against the yen to 81.58 yen, having bounced back up from a 15-year low of 80.88 yen hit on Thursday on trading platform EBS.
Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Friday that Japan will continue to take decisive steps on currencies if necessary to curb excessive moves in the foreign exchange market.
He said, in response to a question, that Japan would take necessary steps regardless of meetings of Group of Seven or G20 nations.
While traders think Japan could intervene to keep the yen in check at any moment, some market participants have speculated that Tokyo may prefer to avoid intervention ahead of the G20 meetings.
Group of 20 finance ministers meet in South Korea later in October, which will be followed by a G20 summit next month. (Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing in Sydney, Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo and Eric Burroughs in Hong Kong; Editing by Joseph Radford)