rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

Thanks Spit.
BoE cut rate by 1% so we shall now see what happens in the U.K.
Inflation will now presumably be at a higher rate than most new investment/savings rates which is a bit of a downer for those people sitting on cash.

Evidently buy on rumour sell on fact...as usual for rate cuts these days!

i suspect much of the reason is because, as has now become common, the banks and mortgage lenders are not (generally) passing on the favour

Platinum is now cheaper than gold I gather ! And probably oil cheaper than water!

at least one can turn water into wine!

The cost of administering the mortgage (staff, buildings, IT, admin etc.) won't ever drop to 0, so at somepoint rate cuts can't be passed on, no matter how low they go.

Strawbs.

A wine refined from oil would probably be less palatable

Some of the spanish plonk tastes like oil !, yuck !.

mortgage interest rates will fall when the lending banks start to compete for new replacement business as their mortgage books run down, with property prices likely to slump over the next year lenders will not be in any hurry to compete for new business. imho.

Yes I think yr right Halifax, in Shares (today) a reader suggests that RBS not doing "repossessions" will help to extend the housing-fall . . . making it more painful for the rest of us.

I wonder if those that bought at the top ( without a property to sell, thereby negating the silly-prices)...should hand-back the keys?
It's very sad but the fact is most properties sold since 2004 are woefully overvalued....esp B2L where a small amount of ignorance oiled a fraud machine, even if the purputrators were seemingly straight.

There never was a future for folks that borrowed 6x salary, or 120% of valuation, since the valuations are by humans....who can be led astray.

My local paper is still advertising courses for Building Efficiency Inspectors ( Part of the HIP fiasco)....er, no thanks, I'd rather burn a peasant. I think houses are selling at the rate of 1-per-week...Oh deary.

memory tells me that house prices have fallen to around 2005/2006 levels

I read just recently that the banks are reluctant to lend until the new year, the reason being that they want to appear to have sound finances at the year end, I believe it also mentioned that the libor rate will come more in line with the base rate then.
2517

Until the government relax their punitive rules on money lent to banks for re-capilisation, it is very unlikely that banks will lend more freely. The priority will be to pay the government back as quickly as possible by hoarding money.

When the government says they want bank lending back to 2007 levels, isn't this part of the reason why we in this situation now.

Would houseowners with serious negative equity be better served by handing their keys over to the lending bank and declaring themselves bankrupt?

The interest rate cut looks like panic to me, not much room for any false manoevres now !, I prefer the bit by bit approach, down to 2% now......what they are saying ?: go out and spend ....get yourselves further in to debt ! what has happened to save up for something and then go and buy it !, encouraging the youth today into "buy now and pay later" is a recipe for disaster and should be stopped, parents and government alike should set an example !.

rf didn't the goverment change the bankrupcy laws and made it easier for borrowers to avoid their creditors and start borrowing again with a clean slate.

You know, I think they did !, it gets worse day by day.

Oil now under $45 heading south?

you would be a very brave man to back that hunch, as assuredly the price will turn, and when it does so, the move will be sharp ...... >$50 is not economical even for Saudi, which is, I think, the cheapest major producer, so though the shorters may be having their day, the wise ones will at least be starting to bank their profits ..... remember, it is the cold months that are now fast approaching and not the warm ones

Oil was uneconomical for many countries at $10, but it stayed there for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised to see the price overshoot on the downside in the same way as it did on the up. Remember, markets are sometimes irrational for longer than you might think.

Strawbs.