Ah, the ongoing story of this summer of madness, eh? Loonies are everywhere to be found, and not only in Canada.....(For those of you who don't trade the forex markets, a "loonie" isn't just a term used for an "investor" - it's also the rather unkind name for the Canadian Dollar.) However, when I think about it - since the governor of the Bank of Canada has just come out with this pearl of wisdom, "We are on track for the recovery, both in Canada and globally", maybe "loonie" isn't actually unkind enough? Duh. A "mega indebted nae jobs recovery" eh? That's going to be a first.

And speaking of "firsts" - it seems that British universities have been dishing out first class honours degrees with total abandon. "Over double the number" compared to ten years ago. But of course it doesn't involve any kind of "dumbing down" - people are just so much more clever than they used to be. That's why the world and his brother are all diving in to the investment market. This guy is just so glad to have been born stupid. Talk about missing out on great buying opportunities! How dumb can IW be? According to the UK's Investment Management Association (aka salespeople with little understanding of just about anything other than counting their commission) "Sales of investment funds to small investors have taken off". Seemingly the poor dears only managed to stitch up the punters to the tune of £128m in June 2008, but in June 09 they achieved £2.5bn. The sheep have looted their savings accounts by just a tad more than that amount too. Oh dear. And still with con men, it seems that Britain's car scrappage scheme (try "scrappage" in the search engine if you can be bothered with even more IW ranting) may not be quite the bargain it was cracked up to be. The car manufacturers anticipated the cost to them & simply hiked their new car prices by around 14% in response. Ho ho.

Never mind, if you're a banker you'll still be able to afford your new Tatacruiser, what with all the bonuses that are still being paid, even though another £32bn or so is about to be "written off" UK high street bank balance sheets. As per the first sentence of today's ramblings - a summer of madness indeed!

Over in the US of A, Wells Fargo Bank has just found a buyer (!) for a dodgy mortgage portfolio that had been sitting on the balance sheet at $600m. The price was 35 cents on the dollar, so there are certainly some mad buyers over there too - $210m was probably about $209m too dear - but doubtless Morgan Stanley or whoever, will chop it all into small pieces, vacuum pack it, tie a ribbon round it, and retail it to the punters at a tasty bonus - producing price. Ho ho.

But there's good news around too - British Airways is ceasing to provide "food" on short haul flights. And the UK chancellor is insisting that banks lend a lot more dosh to small businesses. That'll be why the figure is down £1bn for June then. Seemingly, banks are charging businesses even more than previously for the privilege of paying them (the banks) money - arrangement fees, facilitation fees (what the heck is the difference between these two?), audit fees, and bimonthly review fees. Nice work eh? Oh yes, and increased interest rates. There's a criminal investigation going on regarding the shenanigans in Icelandic banks - maybe that should be extended to include all banks, everywhere? But to be serious for a moment, why should banks start lending again at pre - crash levels? That's what caused the mess in the first place for goodness' sake. (If you're a fully paid up masochist, type "artery" in the search engine....) And still with scams, Britain's Office of Fair Trading (the good folks who warn the public about dodgy stuff) has experienced a £250m fraud itself. Oops.

Anyway, one more wee thing before a chart or two - a "business opportunity" perhaps? The Williams satnav took us and our visiting friend "Davie" a slightly "interesting" (ie too direct!) route to a lakeside restaurant the other day. Mme W wasn't totally amused and mentioned that often, big lorries get directed through tiny villages and down roads that end as pathways, due to the inability of satnav to suggest "appropriate" routes. Davie, being a gentleman of some intelligence, suggested that it might be an idea to programme such software with the type and size of the vehicle using it, to avoid such embarrassments. Now there's a good idea if it hasn't already been thought of! (And no, I wasn't driving a big lorry....)

No emails to share with you this weekend - it seems many of you are on holiday, so it's to be hoped the weather favours you, whatever you might be doing!

OK, on to a few charts - and first, in response to a question or two - a "schematic" one of a "wedge" formation with an explanation of why a wedge is not a triangle as far as any "trading" definition is concerned. Then we'll look at SAB Miller, Next Plc, and Home Retail, where I'll draw some lines without any comment at all for once. See what you make of it - after all, as suggested in the manual, you need to work at this stuff in order to become successful. It won't happen by osmosis.

On that note, happy trading/chart analysing. Please note that although there WILL be video updates both midweek and next weekend as usual, there will NOT be a WICS next weekend (9th August) due to a longstanding invitation that cannot be refused.

All the best till 16th August then,

Ian.

'IMPORTANT NOTICE: These WICS charts are for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. They represent only MY understanding of what is happening in the market for any particular share, stock, commodity or index. In NO circumstances should they be construed as recommendations to trade. If I choose to trade what I see, that is MY decision. YOU must, in turn, come to YOUR OWN conclusions about what action, if any, YOU might choose to take'.