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.

an excellent caveat Strawbs, especially in current markets ...... have already reduced my exposure significantly and shall prob pare a bit more, notably after figures from both RTN (should be excellent) and YUCT (not sure) this coming week.

have held open my Dow short though closed the FTSE one last night.
shall reconsider the latter on Monday, though prob after the first flurry of almost inevitable sells.
shall also take a good look at gold, which is now looking oversold ..... $638 is my entry target

With all the press coverage, I suspect people will be considering their positions over the weekend. Fund managers included. :-) One thing to remember though, markets never move in the logical direction you expect. Some will see cheap prices as a way to make some money. The fact that others will see it as a good time to sell explains the volatility. A good reason to sit on the sidelines. Trading the trend is easy when it lasts for months......not so easy when it lasts for 5 minutes.

The fact that so many asset classes have fallen together, makes me wonder if the carry trade leverage has been "spread around". If everything goes up together, does it come down together too?

Further falls in Asia may just spook the horses on Monday......and the run up to non farm payrolls on Friday might be interesting too.....

In my opinion.

Strawbs

Bit of coverage on carry trade. This could underpin market weakness until trades unwind
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article1464436.ece

More red in Asia overnight with the Yen continuing to strenthen. Could be another mess on the FTSE and DOW later.

Take care out there......

Strawbs.

indications looked vile .... Dow down a further 100+ today (even after Friday); FTSE predicting -65/70

an indicator of market panic and forced sales is the performance of PFC today (one of my faves; there is a thread) ....... fantastic figures well ahead of forecast and with bullish trading statement .... credit suisse raises it's prognostication to outperform with a target of 435 ..... sp drops, albeit only a few pennies, though sp is already well down on where it was 7/10 days ago ...... in stable times, one would almost certainly have seen sp bolt (there must be a useful pun in there somewhere!)

FTSE is recovering from -116 to -90 now.

Been watching PFC, cynic.

We're starting to see some bargains out there, but keeping cash until the turn. This is indiscriminate.

absolutely so ..... shall be neither buying nor selling ..... $ has gone through the roof ..... now 1.9250

Nearly all companies reporting today have had positve results,, uuummmmm!!

Kivver

It's irrelevant in a market such as this.

quite so .... PFC being a prime example

its irrelevant now, but might be a good sign for the future!

What does the future hold for us? Anybody has a crystal ball I can borrow?

Kivver - there are bargains out there, but would suggest we need to see indications of a market turn before buying? Suppose you could start nibbling, but is there more downside yet?

Are we expecting the DOW to open down this afternoon?
If so the FTSE will continue to slide imo.
Am having difficulty selling WNG at the moment as the system is struggling to keep up!

knives , knives falling knives.. some great looking potentials building up though, when will it go boinnnnnnnng?

press coverage was favourable for end of correction on weekend, never beleive what you read there then.

good time to get into Japan, strengthening yen , improving economy, even if market falls will probably still gain relative to others markets due to currency fluctuations. Lots of money heading back that way as carry trade unwinds.
DYOR

Does anyone know if the equity settlement dates are roughly the same worldwide? e.g. T+3. I'm just thinking that if equities are being liquidated to repay the carry trade, presumably the settlement and pay back into the yen will be 3 days behind the stockmarket turmoil? E.g. Did last Tuesdays sell-off results in Yen payments on Friday, and will todays sell off result in a stronger Yen on Thursday? If so then maybe tomorrow or Wednesday could be a little calmer, before further falls at the end of the week.

Strawbs

The think the week will remain cautious or gloomy at its worse as interest rate is likely to increase in europe this week and ours on Thursday is due for a decision.

AL ..... my gut instinct is that there could be a decent bounce imminently ..... no real logic to this other than the basic fact that markets/stocks neither rise nor fall in straight lines.

put another way ..... i have already set a pretty tight stop loss (misnomer there!) on my nicely profitable Dow position, but that does not mean that iw ould then go long! ...... in fact, rather to my surprise, Dow has now resumed its freefall (-123)