The market seems to be selling-off on the back of limited bad news imo, apart from the dollar that is.

If you can hold your nerve and apart from any short term requirements to offload poor performing stocks, I have a couple!!, my advice would be sit tight. This does not have the feel of the tech(mining!) bubble at all. Difference being there are a lot of good fundamentals, unlike in 2000 when there were a lot of over rated nothing companies.

confess i hold AL (bought cos i thought it was a solid defensive banking stock!) and BARC, but with the latest indiscriminate rout of all financial stocks, i just wonder if it makes the likes of BARC, in particular, and perhaps (still) AL a tempting target for one of the overseas banks

Time to initiate stop-loss on AL and BARC.

i'll prob just sit out the storm with both ...... 95% certain that BARC has little or no problem and, in failing to capture ABN, may now be a target hemselves ...... AL, not quite so sure as there seem to be conflicting stories and evidence zipping about

Sitting on the sidelines with cash still feels the best thing to do at the mo (until volatility blows over) and liability becomes clearer, good luck to people still trading (with stop loses in place of course).

i would not be at all susprised to see Wall Street finishing down pretty sharply, for even if rates are cut by 0.5%, it has already been written into the prices, and anticipation is always ahead of the news ....... anyone disagree?

what he says will be just as important - like here with nrk , its a confidence thing rather than 0.25 or 0.5 cut

See what happens in the USA later today ,a 1/4 point cut is expected ,any more would be a bonus.

EDIT ,i think a half point cut may help cynic

we shall see ..... wonder if i shall be brave/rash enough to open a short ...... shall be cross if i am am proved right, but not half as cross if i do it and am wrong!

The DOW'S a tricky one today ,it's a flip of the coin job.

ok then .... we the quite well forecast 0.5% cut in US rates and the market has, as lest initially, rocketed 250 points ...... too far too fast yet again? ..... we shall have to wait and see

given that Dow was +80 or thereabouts before the announcement, i suppose any finish of +120 or more can't be bad news for tomorrow's opening in London

I think there will be strength tomorrow all round.

wow! absolutely amazing ..... Dow currently +275 ..... confess i thought the market would boil over once the announcement came out, and certainly it retreated for a while, but has now come on strong, and then some ..... fingers crossed that it will hold through the close.

Finished about 330 up ,i was tempted to go long today before the announcement at + 100 ,but it all depended on what the Fed did,(too risky) oh well you win some lose some and some you just don't play :-)

The fire burns brightest before it dies, and so it is with stock market crashes, generally arriving as a total surprise amidst the euphoria of a bull run. The Fed it seems have dodged the bullet and maybe the BOE will do the same, pushing the pain of excess debt into the future once again. I'll watch and wait for a while, but assuming the bearish patterns are broken, I guess I'll have to blow the dust off my broking account and start investing again. If only for a short while.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Strawbs, in the long term you are going to be right, but volatility is what makes you money, (and loses) of course, but at the moment the world sighs a huge sigh of relief and stocks soar again for a day or two at least!!

Strawbs - perhaps instead of being a regular Jonah, you would also dust down your books on how to make money in both a bull and a bear market ....... for sure we are now suddenly on the road to eternal heaven, for i suspect the loosening of the purse strings could foreshadow inflationary pressures 1/2/3 years down the road ..... meanwhile, had you had your wits about you, you could and arguably should at least have taken a long FTSE position some time after the Fed announcement, or even at the close in USA ...... had you done so, you would now be well in profit.

AL. yesterday would also have served you well when it became reasonably apparent or even obvious that it was no going the same way as NRK.

My investment stratergy suits my ability (or lack there of) to trade during the day (with work commitments). I won't use leveraged products because of the huge risks when you get it wrong (or get it right after you've run out of money). Thanks but I'll continue as I am. I don't suppose I'll ever make the maximum profits available because of the limitations I've set myself, but I do (at least so far) leave with a profit, and for me that's enough.

I'm not yet 100% convinced everything will come up rosey, but will change my view if the charts indicate the bears have been dissmissed.

Strawbs.

of course everything will NOT come up rosy, but just as there are winners in bear markets, there are losers in bull ones ..... perhaps building society deposits or even gilts would suit you better, though history shows those to give a very very poor return against sensible share investment.

My investments are always sensible.....to me anyway.

Strawbs.