MINTER COURT

CLAIRVOY...thanks for the input, have to admit got in purely as a gamble, calculated, made 26 or so points on two forays--£20pp so up £520 in minutes...then I fcukt it, got caught once when shouldn't have been near it, totally lost the plot--as i said at the time in here--and started reversing like Tower's wife...totally daft, never again (said that motnhs ago). Think the thing that got me was turned comp. on the other day, saw the DOW at 8550, knew it was time for the long term £10 short, but needed to play with kids. Ticked me off missing it, emotions got the better of my mind, and ye know the rest. Fcuk it, good lesson learned. To play the DOW again, I want to be looking at at least a good 50 points down or up or I'm staying out.

Saying that, I believe we are heading down again next week.

TOWER, read yer post with interest, noted the "200%" mark up concept. Cant see that mark up across the board, but, even if so, discounting has been in the region of 70% - 80% in many cases. Even on your concept, that's a loss. Furthermore, for the sake of debate, even assuming goods sold above cost, the loss of profits surely will dramatically alter previous margins and profit expectations.
With Korea added into the game now, and most of the market still to return bringing, for example, liquidity issues for big fund managers, I see nothing but further downside.

TOWER's post was excellent, stimulated debate. Let's get more of it in here.

Thanks to WAGELSLAVE too for the above article. The following from other parts of it: "If the odds against three down years were long, they're incredibly stacked against four in a row -- the only time that happened in the history of the Dow Jones industrial average was the period spanning from 1929 through 1932."
WATCH WITH INTEREST
"A key report on the manufacturing economy Thursday -- the first trading day of 2003 -- will give Wall Streeters something to do besides mull what the year ahead might bring. Economists think that the Institute for Supply Management's Purchasing Managers' Index for December will show a slight rise, coming in at 50.2 compared with 49.2; the stock market will cheer if it exceeds these expectations, groan if it does not...The Purchasing Managers' Index measures manufacturing activity, but it also gives a good early read on where the overall economy is heading. It plunged in July, for example, a drop that augured the weakness that rolled over the economy this fall."