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.

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.

this is the investors thread isnt it????? Most invest for the longer term. Ive not sold one share during this so called crisis and actually one of my biggest holdings National Grid is going up slowly but nicely.

Well i for one should have stuck to building societies... my 28k i put into shares 20 months ago is now worth 18k... not afraid to admit to some silly decisions which i hope i have learn't valuable lessons from, trouble is i'm hell bent on recouping it but as i dont trade cfd's or spread bets, i'm counting on it to remain bullish for a while yet... of course this is a dangerous time for me, a bear market and i will be so far in it before realisation sets in....

is your portfolio properly balanced or is it all skewed towards penny and spiv stocks? ..... if the latter, then inevitably (i am afraid) it is very easy to lose money, though if you get just one or two right, then that can more than make up for the stinkers

morning Richard, well lets just say, i believe it to be balanced now! last year i sat through a large correction on small oilies, i fell into the same trap as the dot.com boom, buying in at the top, enjoying 2/3 months of strong gains and then being fully invested when the bubble burst...
Earlier this year i started realising solid growth companies would suit me better and have slowly switched into such like, although still clinging on to some utter crap, eg PELE, AMER and SEO, problem is every now and then i see an old name come up and my eyes pop out - i can remember selling THR at 3p three years ago, until recently i think they reached 16p THUS i sold at 36p i think from memory a couple of years ago and so on, the argument between trading and investing rumbles on...

now something has spooked the market NRK down 13% AL. down 2% all having earlier registered gains. Anyone have an idea?

Chickens perhaps?

Stan- thanks for that insight.
EDIT - handbags then

Not at all anytime.

I too, have an idea...

Could the reason be the following news release at 11:38. See below.

- UK fund manager Baillie Gifford has sold its entire stake in troubled UK mortgage lender Northern Rock, sources close to the situation said.

Although the fund manager said it had reduced its 5.98 pct stake to 'under' the 5 pct threshold, a source confirmed earlier press reports that it in fact had sold its entire share capital in the lender, realising its loss of up 200 mln stg.

At 11.19 am Northern Rock shares were down over 8 pct, or 24 pence at 280.

Baillie Gifford declined to comment.

thats more like it - thanks spitfire

i may be wrong, but it may be that BG's sale was effectively forced ..... they sure lost a fortune

The FTSE is still failing to break the possible head and shoulders pattern I mentioned some time ago. If it fails to rise soon then the pattern can only be completed with a move downwards. The completed pattern would signal a long term trend reversal (from bullish to bearish).

In my opinion....

Strawbs