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.

If you look at next weeks calender there Is potential for further news that could make things volatile or at least introduce more uncertainty.

and boo hoo that i sold my SCHE ...... up 12 by yesterday and a further 20 today

No point In beating ourselves up over these things C, as we know it could quite easily have been the other way!

exactly so, but it is a truism that the ones you sell go up and vice versa ..... lol ..... of course, not really true at all but it feels that way sometimes

Don't know that share, but if there's more wobbles next week, you might be able to buy them back again (if you want to).

Strawbs.

have a look at them (SCHE) Strawbs ..... there is a thread ...... am tempted to think that perhaps the Qataris are building a stake perhaps with a view to t/o, though the quantities being bought are quite small

I'll add it to the watch list. I'm not really tempted to buy anything at the moment though. I must admit I did watch TAN rising for a while yesterday, then the next time I looked it had dropped like a stone (but so had the FTSE). I suspect the MM's will take prices up while they get a steady stream of buyers, but then drop them quickly if any selling pressure comes in. I suppose they're probably nervous too.

In my opinion.....

Strawbs.

quite right ..... wrong time to buy, but certainly an interesting one to watch ..... as incidentally is VML which surprises by its strength in adversity ...... i sold half my TAN but intend to hold the other bit for a while yet, but then i was fortunate enough to get in at about 65

NASDAQ (and therefore Dow) heading for a rough ride this afternoon ..... Dell's figures were crappy it seems

I was a lazy buyer at 57. Lazy because I just followed the IC tip at the end of December, rather than do any real research.

Strawbs.

some very strange goings on ...... we knew Dell had stinky figures 2/3 hours ago; now suddenly in last 10 mins gold has dropped $11.00 and US$ strengthened to about 1.9425 against ...... with regards to this latter, our forex broker said he knew no reason at all so we (the company) are going to bank some profits (selling $ income forward)

cynic - Dell figure swere after the bell last night BTW. ;-0

oh .... thanks Al ..... did not register them until Dow indicator suddenly dropped 40 points about 11.30 .... thought that was the cause

Doesn't need much cause at the mo!! LOL

have just opened a small short on Dow, so shall be very happy to see sharp fall, so long as it recovers by close!

Looks like a good bet. I don't suppose many will be buying ahead of the weekend, especially with the Asian markets opening first on Monday and all the nervousness in the markets.

Strawbs.

opened short FTSE earlier this afternoon and have left it running.
opened short Dow later as stated, but closed it when i left the office ..... got hoem and back on line 30 mins later and it had dropped to -100 ..... re-opened whether rightly or wrongly time will tell

Hmmm. Don't know where that corresponds to current support levels. Seems a big move. Last time I looked it was down around 50 ish, but then I don't have live prices. If it closes over 100 points down it'll probably scare the markets again next week. IMO.

Strawbs.

correct! ...... Dow currently 12145/149 -87 .... it tried a small recovery and promptly failed .... from memory, Dow could fall to around 11900 ..... gold may well be a good play, but just wait for about $638

Cynic do you tend to spreadbet or use CFDS? I am new to the world of shorting and leverage. I understand that the former are tax-free but vulnerable to abuse from shifting spreads to trigger stop losses and their are fees for borrowing for the leverage . They must be useful as a hedge though in this environment if you don't want to incur cgt by flogging off the whole portfolio.