Well, here we are in September and still the major markets look to be heading upwards, so am I about to 'capitulate' and finally admit my overall bearish view is just plain wrong? I know plenty of previously bearish commentators have recently thrown in the towel. Hmm, might I be tempted to do likewise? Nah, I'm just a stubborn, grumpy old codger - or so my family contends - so I'll stick with my overall view that there's going to be a great big slide into the winter - and I'm not talking about the Hahnenkamm either! (A famous downhill racing course in Austria - probably the scariest in the entire world.)

A few UK headlines during the past week only serve to reinforce my view that markets are in their final 'peaking' throes:

"Consumer Confidence Undented By Rate Rise", "Retail Sales At Highest August Pace For Two Years", "Housing Market Still In Rude Health" - I could go on. Just who actually believes all that shameless spin? Very soon now, there are going to be one or two auction sales of houses - 'distress sales' in effect - where people can no longer afford their mortgage payments - and there is going to be a very unpleasant outcome when the reserve price is not met - nor anywhere near met. And THAT will finally bring home (excuse the pun) to people that their house is 'worth' nowhere close to what they have been led to believe - which in turn will at long last mark the beginning of a major property market correction. That process of course has already started but for now, the media is still blissfully (wilfully) unaware of the fact. My American brother in law tells me that on his side of the pond, 'distress sales' are already in full swing and the properties involved are typically fetching around 50% of their previous so -called 'valuation' - hardly a glowing endorsement of the surveying profession! He also tells me that 'M&A' activity and 'IPOs' (Merger and Acquisition and Initial Public Offerings) have more or less completely dried up in the States, with 44 IPOs having been completely withdrawn in August alone. Hardly a sign of underlying Stock Market strength.

Anyway, we'll see whose view turns out to be accurate as the autumn progresses, but Williams is pretty relaxed about things for sure - there are going to be loads of nice selling opportunities to swell the currently somewhat depleted bank account! (I WILL buy new fishing gear - it's simply an addiction!)

Moving along, I see that if you aspire to an expensive lifestyle, a great career might be to become an 'adviser' to El Presidente Blair's bunch of crooks - £750 a day seems to be the going rate, where civil servants doing exactly the same job (ie not a lot) earn around £120 a day.

It seems the bill for 'consultants' is running at £2 billion a year - paid of course by YOU. The abandoned 'Home Information Pack' fiasco alone cost several £m in fees to external consultants. No wonder people resent taxation! (And of course, if these 'consultants' are being well advised themselves, they'll be based somewhere offshore and THEY will be handing exactly zilch of their earnings to Grumpy Gordon, other than the inevitable VAT and fuel duty.)

Speaking about fees, I note that someone has just encashed a so - called 'Savings Plan' that she had subscribed to via that doyen of financial acumen, Scottish Widows. She paid in £500 a month for ten years - ie £60000. How much did she receive back? £59702.

As she herself observed, she would have been better putting the cash under the mattress. Oh yes, and how much did Scottish Widows earn from the lady's negative return? A mere pittance, you'll be pleased to note - only a measly £12016.

And I have not the slightest shadow of doubt that the so - called 'top management' of that bunch of shysters will themselves retire on massive, inflation - proofed pensions - on that you can most certainly rely!

Anyway, do I really care? After all, I myself entrust the management of not one cent of my cash to anyone else - never have done, never will do. Actually, yes I DO care - a great deal in fact. Why? Because people (the general public) are not expected to be 'financial experts' - why should they be? If I want my car fixed, I go to the experts - my local garage. ('Top geezers', to quote my son.)

If I ever need medical attention, I trust that whoever deals with me will also be an expert in their field - my own knife hand is a little shaky these days and a DIY appendectomy might be a tad unpleasant.

I don't think anyone would have been 'wrong' to imagine that the likes of Scottish Widows (and all the rest of the same sorry bunch) would be 'financial experts' and surely it would have been perfectly reasonable behaviour to entrust savings to them.

Now in my view, if you buy, say, a fridge - and it turns out to be a heap of rubbish, your loss is pretty small and you can always just fly tip it. (Only kidding, honest!) If the mechanic makes a botch of repairing your car, what's the worst that happens? Generally, not a lot beyond inconvenience. But if you entrust your 'retirement plan' to someone and THAT is totally botched, can you wind the clock back and try again? It simply makes me furious - indeed it's probably the only thing that can truly wind me up, other than fly tipping - equally despicable behaviour.

OK - rant over - let's move on! Oops - nearly forgot one other snippet - after all the excitement surrounding the fact that our Solar System actually had 12 rather than 9 planets, 'the astronomers' - stingy bunch - have now decided to devalue Pluto as well as the 'new 3' so now we're down to only 8 planets. That's deflation for you.

Oh yes, and ABTA bonding for travel agents has just been downgraded and no longer meets Trading Standards requirements - check before you book a holiday! More deflation then.

Anyway, what about the markets? Up a wee bit more for another couple of weeks maybe, and then down, down, down.

Charts this weekend however reflect what I suggested last weekend - that no matter the overall market direction, individual stocks will 'do what they will do' - don't get too hung up regarding my overall bearishness other than for index trading, where my comments apply the most. In other words, whereas I might not be desperate to buy an INDEX at present, a specific COMPONENT (an individual stock) of that index might well be screaming 'Buy Me!' (And no, I won't be showing you anything below on today's charts that you might relate specifically to that remark!) The converse of course is equally true - an index might be a strong 'buy' yet a stock within it might be suggesting a 'sell' at the same time.

Have a look when you get time at the charts of Abbot Group, Electrocomponents, and Big Yellow, which have all been featured recently in WICS - it's good too to see Minerva moving so nicely, but today we'll examine 'dynamic support' off a DMA by looking at the recent action on the chart of Cable & Wireless - it might also be a good idea to look at Director Dealings for that stock.

Then we'll see the same kind of thing on the Workspace chart, before having a wee look at the Dow Jones, where it's the trend line that has provided some dynamic support. (And always remember that 'dynamic RESISTANCE' is just the mirror image of 'support'.)

And that's your lot for this weekend - there will be another WICS next weekend (10th September) but then there won't be another one till Cyprus Independence Day (October 1st) because I'm off again on my travels and the laptop will be left, as usual, in the fireproof safe. (You might well ask "Why do you bother with a laptop if you don't take it with you?" An excellent question - go to the top of the class. The answer is because I DO take it ['them' - I have two, to be sure, to be sure...] when moving from what are loosely termed our 'summer quarters' to our more settled 'winter quarters' and vice versa - but our interim jaunts are 'family time' and trading - related work is NOT part of that area.)

I'll remind you again next weekend of course, and if you're a newcomer to my ramblings, be assured that the two blank weekends don't count within your foc entitlement - unlike Scottish Widows, I won't short change you!

Anyway, all the best till next weekend.

Ian.