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.

One big problem with this Sub-Prime situation is that even some of the institutions don't seem to know the extent of their own liability, given that it would seem to undermine every thing about market movements at the moment....I will continue in cash.

so diff to judge markets at all at the moment ..... ran a modest FTSE short o'night, but with market looking more stable this morning, took the profit (better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick) ...... within the last hour, FTSE has tumbled again, primarily i guess through fear of what latest US figures will throw up ..... if that fear is at least relatively unwarranted, then the turn-around (or at least immediate reaction) will also be sharp

Concur!

Australian hedge fund Basis Capital also said Wednesday that losses at one of its funds may exceed 80 percent because of further credit deterioration.

Basis Capital was believed to have had around US$1 billion under management before the blow-up in credit markets.

With the dollar/yen (among other yen crosses) continuing to fall, I guess the carry trade worries are back on the horizon..... I'm sure there was a level when it becomes painful to hold, so it might cause more forced liquidations.

Strawbs.

I havent read any of the lastest posts, but as ever I remain a bull. Results are still good if not the best ever for a lot of companies. PE's of the top fste350 are good and certainly not expensive. If I had the money (which i havent) i would be buying quality fste 350 stocks (excluding banks, insurance, supermarkets and water). Good luck what ever you choose to do.

Since switching to cash at the start of the year my (boring) return on investment has been just under 5%. The same in the FTSE 350 would've returned me -3.6%. I personally remain unconvinced that the markets will return to their highs in the short to medium term so my money will be staying in the bank. Except for a few exceptions, I still believe that the general trend will be downwards. If the FTSE (100) returns to the 4500 level over the next few years then I might be interested in investing again. :-)

In my opinion.....

Strawbs.

im about about 15% down overall and obvisouly a little worried.

is it fair to call the present state of the DJIA a "wobbounce" then ? (as compared to the FTSE that is ...)

.

I like you Kiver, am also a bull.
Fingers crossed most of the tree shaking is over or at least the worst of it.

brave call, but am glad to see that Dow is behaving itself today and moving gently in a narrow range (even have a small long running there, so fingers x-ed) ...... we really really do need to see a few days of just steady progression without any of the violent gyrations seen of late

I can't quite see everything turning back to normal imminently. The spider's web has not untangled itself yet and there will surely be a huge drop in liquidity in the markets for some time to come. I read the other day that black box trading accounts for a third of all trades within Europe and this is sure to be affected, with a few techies peering in with a screwdriver to fix inappropriate trades in extreme market volatility, not to mention the re-appraisal of risk amongst trading strategies and the amount of leverage permitted

Hope you had a stop on that DOW cynic ,like you i thought it was behaving itself and went out ,thus missing the 150 pt leg down .

Dollar/Yen (carry trade) still falling and Asia looking pretty poor. Think we could see the FTSE break the key (phsycological) 6000 support level today.

In my opinion

Strawbs.

i'm afraid i got greedy .... could have taken a respectable profit before i went to eat my dinner - and then felt obliged to cut my losses! ..... at least i did that and did not wait and wait

the guys n gals who berated me for urging caution a few weeks with regard to investing in chinese-controlled companies like TAIH and WCC (and SOLA to some extent) have gone very very quiet ...... perhaps they are eating their humble pie, though i doubt it

......so that'll be the 'dead cat' out of the way then ??    (see post 845)

Grim isn't it ! but... will be close to buying opportunities soon !

Few things are ever as bad as they seem - and the present market situation is no different. It's 99% personal psychology, if you ask me. Market goes down - people panic and sell off and vice versa. The way I see it is if the market goes down it enables you to buy more shares. So stop thinking in terms of exactly how much money is in your account and start thinking how you can maximise your share holding. For if you think the market is forever descinding, why be in it in the first place?? If you believe the market will recover then you should now be share-building. When the market does turn upwards your holdings will be accordingly magnified. Keep buying is my advice!

Sorry, but I don't agree jj.
I see no reason to buy at the moment. Imo there is further downside, so why buy stock at a higher price than you need to? Of course, if you think that the worst is over, then you would be correct.