What a Crazy Week!
22/09/2008
Wow! After ten years of trading I thought I'd seen everything
until last
week!
Markets crashing then soaring, rescue packages, banks going down, shorting
banned...
Goodness knows what's going to happen next. And that's the point really -
what IS going to happen? Answers on a postcard please.
No-one really knows. Will the US toxic debt rescue combined with short
selling bans continue to lift the markets or is it going to be a short-term
thing?
I'm not a forecaster. My best guess is we'll see a little more rise but I
wouldn't rule out some fresh falls. After all, the problems are still there
in the economy.
It's a bit of a problem for investors - should we be buying or not? I think
personally for the moment the best thing is to be a bit cautious and I'm
playing with smaller stakes than I would have done a year ago.
My average buy would have been about the £5,000-£10,000 mark. Now I'm
looking at about £2,500-£4,000, because in the end the main thing is capital
preservation.
It is human nature to want to try and chase the big rises - after all who
wants to miss out? But it could be foolish to try and chase share prices
higher.
What I'd really like is for things to settle down a bit and to see an end to
the seesaw ride.
There's a lot of talk about the greediness of bankers and the excesses of
the City. If you want to read a first hand account of it, then do buy the
fascinating book City Boy by Geraint Anderson, available from the ADVFN
bookstore.
It exposes in hilarious fashion what REALLY goes on in the City. Yes, all
the insider trading, how so-called analysts really haven't a clue what
they're writing about, how share prices are manipulated
- the lot.
In fact if you are a regular share trader this is a must read. Especially if
you've had shares "downgraded" by an "analyst" - it was probably this guy
and as he admits, he doesn't know much!
It's a real eye-opening account of life in the City from someone who admits
all - the drugs, corruption, egos et al which is why he can never work in
the City again.
He became one of the City's top analysts. Interesting how much of our money
is literally gambled by fund managers. Read how one fund lost six billion
pounds gambling on the US gas price.
It's entertaining and eye opening from beginning to end and you may well
look at the stock market differently after reading it.
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