Interesting day on the markets?

bendix

Nonsense, you have timed it perfectly. You have bought when shares have retreated 2%. Where is the downside in that. If you went out shopping and saw goods on sale, you'd be happy, wouldnt you?

Harry_Powell

bendix wrote: »

Nonsense, you have timed it perfectly. You have bought when shares have retreated 2%. Where is the downside in that. If you went out shopping and saw goods on sale, you'd be happy, wouldnt you?

Dont worry Bendix, I was only joking. I know that I could not have picked a finer time to start investing than right now. Nice to see you on this board, I follow your posts on the Pensions board and enjoy them a lot. I have learned an awful lot in a short amount of time from the excellent folks on the Pensions & also the investment boards. Great stuff.

Not much going on in here except a load of grown men (and women) arguing about nothing. (only joking..ish)

Jonbvn

The markets move in a particular direction for one of two reasons: fear or greed. Today was obviously scary!

Mr_Mumble

Imho the main story today is in the currency markets:
King Crushing Pound as U.K. ‘Can’t Afford’ Strength

Seems a little odd that the markets have only just figured out, two week old news, that Merv the Swerv' is doing everything in his power to dilute the value of Sterling. It helps the UK housing market (in nominal terms) but the side-effects of screwing over cash savers, tempting inflation and bailing out over-stretched mortgagors who are largely to blame for the crisis (hello moral hazard!) are long-term problems King is inviting.

StevieJ

Mr_Mumble wrote: »

Imho the main story today is in the currency markets:
King Crushing Pound as U.K. ‘Can’t Afford’ Strength

Seems a little odd that the markets have only just figured out, two week old news, that Merv the Swerv' is doing everything in his power to dilute the value of Sterling. It helps the UK housing market (in nominal terms) but the side-effects of screwing over cash savers, tempting inflation and bailing out over-stretched mortgagors who are largely to blame for the crisis (hello moral hazard!) are long-term problems King is inviting.

Those foreign currency assets come in handy to spread risk.

mewbie_2

I like listening to this guy...

There is now a realisation that coming out of a recession is one thing, but building a recovery is another," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
"The growth we have seen out of Japan as well as Europe looks like it has been primarily based on government stimulation... The question is, is it sustainable?"

We can't go on artifically stimulating the economies for ever... can we? Once scrappage ends then what? Once VAT goes up then what? Oh well, something will turn up?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Mr_Mumble wrote: »

It helps the UK housing market (in nominal terms) but the side-effects of screwing over cash savers, tempting inflation and bailing out over-stretched mortgagors who are largely to blame for the crisis (hello moral hazard!) are long-term problems King is inviting.

Which is only a problem if you part of the small minority who are a renter with substantial savings.

Good thing we live in a democracy, where the interests of the majority tend to overule the wants of the few.;)

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Which is only a problem if you part of the small minority who are a renter with substantial savings.

Good thing we live in a democracy, where the interests of the majority tend to overule the wants of the few.;)

It's also a problem if you are a renter, or living with parents, who just want to have the security of buying their home, savings or not.

purch

We can't go on artifically stimulating the economies for ever... can we?

Nope...but you can hope/expect that the State stimuli creates opportunities for the rest of the Economy to start to grow.

Wookster

purch wrote: »

Nope...but you can hope/expect that the State stimuli creates opportunities for the rest of the Economy to start to grow.

What opportunities?

The last two bubbles were housing and the dotcon(m) and we've seen how those have worked out.

The real reason that we're in crisis is because the real world has shown us that housing booms & dotcom companies do not result in a return on investment.