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.

"We still have no idea where all this debt is packaged away"

More worrying then that BA is that nor do "they" and thats the real crux of the situation (see post 858) the damaging reproecutions of which people fail to appreciate.

Interesting piece on Six O'clock news yesterday, "its the bankers who are trying to beat the "anticipated panic selling" setting into the the market that were responsible for yesterday's falls by selling early!" or something like that.

Now everyone - DON'T PANIC! (I just crystalised my losses in PRTY by off-loading 20,000 .....)

Self-fulfulling prophecy.

Just as I said, except I called it corrupt. But when market-makers mark prices down in anticipation of selling, even in the face of good news and buying, I call that corrupt, others may call it looking after their own interests. It's certainly not 'playing straight'.

But in many cases the forced mark-downs actually cause selling from nervous PI's, hence the self-fulfilling prophecy.

small oilers being killed _ wots going on?

More market 'irrationality', forced or otherwise. I say buy them while there is the most fear.

SE* - you're wrong, or at least you do not seem to understand the meaning of "corrupt" ....... but i can't be bothered.

generally ..... everyone is running scared, and not entirely without cause if the markets are going to continue to plummet ..... confess i was very very surprised to see early Dow indications showing -100 and more, but seemingly this is a reaction to a dire night in F/E ...... Dow actually finished unchanged last night, though it felt like a huge bounce! ...... whether there is any more spring left remains to be seen in the coming hours

if anybody is interested re the small oilers , drops are thought to be because the big boys are having to bail out but perhaps more importantly , should they need money they will not be able to raise it.

Maybe 'corrupt' was the wrong word. Maybe I should have used 'devious'. But at the end of the day I suppose it is the fault of the PI's who fall for it.

1. Market makers mark down the price of the small-cap stock with excellent prospects and very few or no institutional holders.
2. PI holder sees it and asks why?
3. He comes up with the answer "Must be connected to the general markets going down".
4. MM marks the small-cap down some more.
5. PI reads news reports about sub-prime credit crunch in the US. It sounds bad.
6. PI gets scared.
7. MM marks down the small-cap even more.
8. PI, full of fear, sells out in despair.
9. MM (a bit later) marks the stock back up.

thats the game and if you know how it works why are you so upset?

9. is not quite correct , they often mark up so they can get rid of stock and then will mark it down again

Because it results in my stocks going down of course!

The other thing to consider is that when prices fall and "weak (maybe smart)" people sell, other more comitted players will eith buy for a long term hold or a quick profit. When the market recovers, all the easy sellers have gone, so the MM's have to raise the price quicker to encourage new selling. Generally market makers are only interested in 2 things. Plenty of volume and a balanced book. They don't particularly care about fundamentals or news (unless it can stimulate buying).

In my opinion.....

Strawbs.

Buy good quality companys and stick with them ,yes they go up and down but you should win in the end ,if you find trading too difficult then buy and hold ....Although i wouldn't be buying anything until the dust settles.

market makers are there to make money and will do whatever is necessary to create the maximum volume - as you say strawbs they have no interest in the company

That's my lazy investing method. Wait for the markets to come out of a bear phase and then buy and hold while the trend goes up. Only downside is you can't invest for 3 or 4 years in every 10. :-)

Strawbs.

strawbs , can you come in here and tell us when the bear is over :-)))

When I can work that one out you'll be the second person to know.... :-)

Strawbs.

jimmy b,

Yes that's what I attempt to do, as well as trying to buy on days like these.

SECRUOSER

I have to say you are being very naive.

SETS stocks open down because no-one is prepared to buy at any higher level. It's no different for MM's. They're prepared to buy at whatever level they set. You should not be surprised by this.

IT IS A MARKET!!!!!!

Big Al,

I'm not naive. My comments really only refer to fairly lightly traded SEAQ stocks.
If you are only used to dealing with SETS stocks then I understand why my comments will not strike a chord with you.

DOW futures -114 at present.
Also just heard that it is unlikely investors will want to hold open positions over the weekend, so may well see a sell off this p.m., imo.