It had to happen. The market was overpriced and just waiting for a “trigger” to start the correction.  President Obama provided the trigger with the announcement on Banking reforms, starting a slide in financial stocks.  Then to add momentum to the slide China announced that it was tightening credit.  Suddenly importers to china could not [...]

What will 2010 bring?  That is the question occupying many minds as this decade begins. Certainly the markets started with a hiss and a roar, to reach heights last seen in September 2008. I fear this bout of enthusiasm for the new decade is misplaced.
Before the market opened yesterday (Friday 8th Jan), Marketwatch’s main headline was [...]

On the 9th of March 2009 the FTSE hit its low of around 3450.  Since then it has been an upward path, except for a dip for a month from mid june to mid July, from wence the upward path resumed.  On Christmas eve, on a shortened trading day with very little volume the FTSE [...]

This is my first post for three weeks, due to a combination of not much to talk about and returning to work after a months holiday.  But this week could be a turning point. The rise in the markets since March 09 has been remarkable.  I feel it has been due in a large part [...]

A week when against all odds the market went up. On Thursday the initial unemployment number came in less than expected at 512,000.  Down from the 600,000 plus up until July. But even now half a million workers loose their jobs every week.  That is half a million people stressed out, probably unable to meet [...]

As I mentioned at the begining of the month October is historically a down month, and so it turned out. The FTSE finished the month 90 points lower.  On Friday all markets took a hit and the FTSE was 93 points lower on the cash and 112.5 points lower on the December futures.
The week was [...]

This last week was very much up and down for all markets.  For the week the FTSE December futures managed to gain 41 points, The S&P500 lost 8.1 points and the DJIA  lost 23.7 points.  Monday provided the biggest swing with the DJIA regaining the 10,000 level again, finishing below 10,000 on Wednesday, above on [...]

It looks as though the markets were being held up high for the expiry of the October options. Talking of market highs it is interesting to note that the high for the December index options for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were 5243.5, 5245 and 5245 respectively. A clear triple top. Is this significant? Probably, the market is way [...]

Not withsatnding the comments from last week the FTSE rose again through the 5000 level to finish the week at 5128, a rise of 162 points for the week. So the support level mentioned last week of 4925 was respected. The resistance level of 5175 looks like it will be tested again.
It has been a [...]

There is a good reason for calling it Red October as historically it is a month when the markets go down, sometimes by large amounts.  In my last post I was saying the the rally had got to a ridiculous stage, now I believe we are seeing the start of the long awaited correction.  I [...]