Gordon Brown must have thought that he had won the lottery last night but the prospect of a quick move into number 10, officially speaking as he already lives there, will have to wait. Tony Blair is not about to expire though the scare has meant that he has managed to miss today's speech to parliament on the latest EU summit. How fortunate that he has such a good excuse not to report on the general chaos surrounding the EU constitution and the proposed defence force; it certainly beats the dog ate my homework.
Talking about a dogs dinner the scale of UK's financial mess became more apparent today with a larger than expected government budget shortfall. This explains talk in the weekend press of the treasury's mooted plan to start taxing profits on property though perhaps they might like to think that such talk in a volatile market could ensure that many profits are immediately wiped out thus creating a new class of homeowners with negative equity.
The markets will be volatile this week. Friday saw profit taking on the back of a weaker tech sector. This area will continue to lead though it is hard to get a feel for the US market at the moment as volume has been so poor. Low option volatility prices have seen a number of large players buying downside protection so a break lower, perhaps through 1024 in the S&P, if in conjunction with a move higher in the vols could lead to a sharp sell off. This will not happen however unless volume starts to pick up as marketmakers would be able to protect trigger levels.
I have been a bit disappointed that the amusing MoneyAM partner offers have become more scarce recently however ADVFN have now come to the rescue with an offer from our old chum Darren Winters for yet another one of his marvellous free seminars. Winters is obviously doing well as he is also advertising on the cover of the latest "Traders" magazine so he can't have been too hurt by a recent Guardian article on him which questioned many of his assertions, especially with regards to his alleged trading. "Dazza" has a bunch of seminars this week, both during the day and after work. The poor lamb must really be well and truly knackered as I am sure he is also trading; oops sorry I forgot you only need to spend an hour a year with his strategy, the strategy that wins 86% of the time. If anyone has any information on this chap we would love to hear from you. Also is there anybody out there who has actually made money from one of his courses and no, employees of the Winters Investment Network can't apply! Potter and I have decided that one of us will go to one of these seminars this week. Unfortunately we can't both go together as we do really trade for a living and have yet to come up with a strategy where participation is optional.
Harry
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