With 2008 looking like it could be a volatile year to say the least, with sectors like Banking, Financial, Construction, Household and Retail all falling. I thought now would be a good time to bounce some views around about companies that have fallen, and may offer an excellent Contrarian Investment. As always it will be about timing, and trying to identify companies that have fallen too far, and have strong fundamentals. ie will not going belly up.

I'm sure that with so many investors with various expertise imputing, we can all help each other to not making to many costly errors. And make some tasty profits, in a year which could throw up some very interesting valuations.

I will kick it off with a company called Cattles CTT. see next thread.

Made a purchase in cattles today, probably not at the bottom, but hopefully not to far off.

I will turn my attention to RBS now, but will buy in three tranches over the next few month's to try and spread out the risk. With all the doom and gloom in the press I'm sure we will see lower prices overall, as has always happened markets are always too pessimistic and too optomistic.

Each way I look I see shares that are vey tempting Aviva being another, but I think it's best to even out the risk of buying over a longer period.

Agree but dont you think one should wait until all the US banks etc have reported?

It's risky either way, I certainly need to spread the risk over time with RBS, a small purchase before Finals then decide on when to top up afterwards. Even if dividend is halved (unlikely) it would still be over 4%.

Still sidelined but wouldn't be surprised to see a dip to 350 on on bad days ahead.

BDEV trading update pleased the market today with sp headind towards 400p, good to see that forward order book is 1.26bn, compared to 1.34bn last time, and that it has 69% of full year sales already secured, down from 74% last year.

The problem remains that any weakness or negative news in the economy, will bring an over reaction to the sp, I don't think we are at the bottom of this cycle yet.

Yes maybe better to wait on interest rate cuts to see market reaction.

Sold CTT today into the rally for a decent profit, and have put an order back in at lower price. I have decided that the markets are so volatile, that I will trade short term. Wouldn't be surprised to see another sell off tomorrow, so have buy orders in place on RBS and AV. also.

My thinking is that I want to hold these shares long term anyway, but will take advantage of these markets at this time. So even if the price may go lower I'm happy to hold a few years.

Good luck..................

BT Group, brought some yesterday for long term, 3rd quarter results out tomorrow. French Telecom reported today with very good results Turnover up 60%, which should give support to telecoms sector.

Still waiting for CTT (again) RBS, AV. VOD,

Have a feeling we will be testing recent lows soon.