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.

With markets back near the sell-off levels of February, are people convinced that the correction is over?

Personally I think the next drop will be bigger and quicker, but wonder what the sentiment is here at the moment.....

Strawbs.

FWIW, I think the next set of US economic data is critical. If that is bad, or Middle East tensions rise again, the traditional spring sell off may coincide with a fall, compounding it and forcing margin calls and herd mentality to the fore.
If these are avoided, I see a fairly benign summer, with little rise or fall.
Just IMHO.
Alan

Probably explains some of February's sell off. Another house of cards waiting for a fall........

NASD warns investors as margin debt jumps to record 321.2 bln usd

Strawbs

Looks like the February high on the FTSE has been taken out today - in theory that means there is no top in place at the moment.

Steve

No fall this time...the economy is robust according to Gordon Brown...the future's orange.

in that case, with luck GB will be Tangoed!

Plenty of US data this afternoon....

Now the indices are back to pre sell-off levels.....what's the betting they'll tank again... :-)

Think higher than expected inflation and poor housing numbers will be the worst case scenario. If our inflation popped this month then you've got to wonder if the US might just do the same.

In my gloomy opinion....

Strawbs.

juat hit new highs - i suppose the only way is down .......NOT!! my glass is STILL half full, though i agreee there will be a bit of down side.

c'mon glass half empty people, where are you, there were loads a few weeks ago!!!

Much to my annoyance, I sold out in late February - however when looking at longer term (i.e. monthly) charts the uptrends were not broken, both in the indices and the individual stocks I was holding. This is a result of over-riding my trading rules by trying to predict what will happen, and by doing this I left lots of money on the table. I will not be selling out again until these charts show that the trend is over.

Steve

I also sold in February, but even though some of my former holdings have gone much higher since, I'm happy to have taken the money off of the table. At the end of the day, it comes down to personal circumstances I guess.

Strawbs.

Better to be safe then sorry.

Very true. I think it's also important to back your judgement call. I think markets are set for a big fall, and a near record high on the DOW looks like a good point for things to go wrong. Just as FTSE 7000 fell short and led to a falling market, I wonder if DOW 13000 might just do the same. I sleep (and work) happier knowing most of my cash is in the bank now. If others feel there's more money to make, then that's their call, and I wish them luck.

In my opinion.......

Strawbs.
Less of a glass half empty, and more of a bank account mostly full kind of investor. :-)

Ah, but your glass is never going to be completely full, or overflowing, with all your cash getting a miserly 5% gross at the bank! :o)

My glass has been full on a number of occasions. That's why when it reaches the top, I empty it and wait for the bottom, to start filling it up again. :-)

Overflowing is no good anyway.......you loose too much down the drain.

Strawbs.

some very honest and creditable replies. i think the market has proved time after time after time, for the glass to be overflowing you have to be invested in shares for a long, long time. How high was the market in 77, 87, 97, 07???

I often wonder if the world is now more unstable now than its ever been, but perhaps people always think that. The market is only just getting back to how it was before 9/11. But a way lot higher than 15 years ago. But with Iran just around the corner, unstability in Iraq, dollar-pound rate, higher inflation, import/export deficiet and interest rates perhaps cautious is the way to go in the short term.

Given that bull markets last until a top (last of the higher highs), and then bear markets run until a bottom (last of the lower lows), the setting of new highs must at least be something of a concern.

Markets are all sentiment driven, and something will no doubt change sentiment, just as it did in February. With so many things on the horizon, as mentioned above, any little thing could set the bears amongst the pigeons again.... I think most market crashes tend to happen in the Autumn though, so maybe there's time yet to make more money (for those with a glass half full). Of course May is also only weeks away, so if there's anything in the saying "sell in May and go away", maybe higher prices now are just there to encourage the buyers, and not signs of market strength.

Only time will tell I guess. Good luck all, whatever your stratergy......

In my opinion anyway.....

Strawbs.

FTSE currently ay 6565, DOW at 13326, Nikkei at 17553.
Although the highs are now being pushed to new limits, many brokers admit that the FTSE over 6600 would be too high to be sustainable. It looks like we may reach that though, but with a possible big market correction afterwards.
Interestingly, a letter in the last Shares Mag is quoted as predicting "a stock market crash before the end of July". Crash is probably just a euphemism for correction, but I am certainly looking to put more of my money in to defensive stocks over the summer, or taking money out altogether, ready to buy back in when the correction has happened. Naturally, this is only a worry to conventional traders; spread betters won't mind either way. Of course, that could be the answer: open a spread betting account!

Other things on at the moment, but thinking the same way myself HC.

My money's in the bank these days. The returns aren't great but at least they're safe.

I've no idea when (or maybe even if) the market will crash, but logically it must come to an end at some point. Since nobody can pick the top or bottom of any market, it comes down to a personal choice of when it feels comfortable to invest money in assets or save the money in the bank.

I believe markets are driven by the herd. Initially people invest because they see prospects, but towards the end they only see the money, jumping on board because a share or asset keeps rising. At some point the herd turns, and the rush to preserve wealth is far faster than the slow rise to create it. You can either be part of the herd, and hope you're at the front of the queue when it turns, or you can decide to leave it, even if that means watching it disappear into the distance.

The housing market, commodity markets, and stock market have all had a very good run, and my worry is that most of this is fuelled by very large levels of borrowing, either conventional or leveraged. If like a house of cards that starts to collapse, it will I believe create a very significant correction in all these asset classes.

What will make the herd turn? Who knows. A bursting of the Chinese stock market bubble? Higher inflation as Chinese workers demand higher wages? An economic slow down in China once the Olympics are out of the way? Higher interest rates? A rise in unemployment? Recession in the US? Or maybe even a new chancellor....... It could be anything really. You certainly won't know until it happens, and you won't know for sure until months later, by then of course it's all to late.

Good luck to everyone still invested.....

All just in my opinion.....

Strawbs.