Hello again - straight to the point this weekend, to say that there are only two charts being featured below, because I have had a number of emails suggesting that I'm getting a bit guilty of 'information overload' in my weekly nonsense.
That's pretty fair comment I guess - I'm always anxious to provide 'value' to you, and perhaps from time to time, that statement should read 'overanxious'.

This weekend in fact is the anniversary of the whole TTEW project - it seems quite incredible (to me at least) that an entire year has gone by since the first of the manuals started being delivered - and overall, it appears to have been an extremely successful experiment. The sudden realisation that WICS has been on the go for so long, has made me aware of the fact that there's a lot of information in there!

Anyway, I want to say a big 'thank you' to all who have taken part so far, and also to remind you perhaps, that the idea of WICS is to supplement/complement the manual.
If you find WICS all a bit too much, then revisit the manual to remind yourself of the basics, and of course, use the mentoring service!

Still on the 'anniversary' theme, I reckon I ought to offer a prize for the best trading results to date. No - make that THREE prizes, since I'm feeling all generous on this lovely sunny early autumn day.

So, three prizes then. (No idea what yet, but I promise they'll be worthwhile trying for).

How to qualify? Well, I could ask to see trading statements but I think that would be somewhat small - minded of me. I'm firmly of the view that trading success comes entirely as a result of trusting oneself, as you already know. So if you're planning to cheat to win one of the prizes, just ask yourself "Whom am I cheating here?" and take things from there.

Therefore in order to enter this wee competition, just tell me by what percentage you have increased your trading bank and over what timescale, and I'll work things out from there.
You can give me actual cash amounts if you like, but to be absolutely fair, it's percentages and timescale I'll work on. After all, not everyone is starting this venture with deep pockets,and increasing a bank of £100 to £150, is a better result than a bank of £10000 becoming £12000 over the same period, is it not?
Anyway, over to you, and I look forward to hearing from you.

OK - that's the sentimental bit over. Moving on, but still on the theme of 'what WICS is for', please don't just take each issue in isolation - the idea of the 'archive' is that you can look back through earlier issues to remind yourself of the overall picture and how things develop - often I feature updates of earlier charts and it's well worth going back to see what was going on back then. (And yes, before you suggest it, one day - one day - I'll sort out some kind of index for you, but please don't hold your breath. Nothing at all to stop you, of course, printing stuff off and filing it under 'Stop loss charts', 'Use of DMA charts', 'Support & Resistance charts' etc etc. I know some of you do this and keep everything in a ring binder and
if that helps you, then obviously it's a pretty sound idea.

So what's going on out in the financial world then? Plenty, but I have bored you with it for months. Oh all right then, just a couple of snippets this week: in the USA, directors of real estate/property companies are selling off their shareholdings like there was no tomorrow, while the 'Moms and Pops' are (still) doing the buying. I wonder which of these categories (insiders or punters) knows more of what's really happening?

The other snippet is from this side of the pond - Morgan Stanley, that pillar of responsible lending, somewhat proudly announces that "The trend towards using credit cards for everyday items, continues to grow." The pride in that statement seems to be engendered by Morgan Stanley's somewhat biased contention that this is due to "Consumers becoming more aware of the benefits of cashback schemes and the fact they don't need to pay interest for up to 55 days".
Nah, I reckon it's due to consumers becoming more and more skint and being forced to put the shopping on the credit card because there's just too much month left at the end of the salary cheque. But then I'm just a cynical, grumpy old man after all, and what would I know?

The retail sector overall certainly isn't looking too healthy, unless it's close to my very expensive daughter's imminent very expensive wedding. That should support a shop or two for a wee while longer. The moths in my wallet have begun to learn how to fly. (I love her really - I'm sure you appreciate that.)

Oil prices? Who mentioned oil prices? The true rate of inflation? Gordon fiddling the figures yet again?
(Despite the views of most pundits, by the way, I see oil prices falling back for a year or two as recession begins to have its effect on the world economy - yes, long term, oil prices must rise as the world supply gets ever tighter, but for now there's far more likelihood of major recession becoming the cause of decreasing demand for most commodities.)

OK - a couple of annotated charts below for your interest, and finally, please note that next weekend I'll be travelling, more or less in the general direction of the 17th September workshop (now fully booked, by the way). Next weekend's WICS therefore may be delayed till the Monday (12th) but it WILL be produced. Please note also that there will be no mentoring service from about 3 pm on Thursday 8th September till Monday 12th - it's too short a time to bother with an autoresponder but I'm not going to be able to deal with questions during that period.

The following weekend of course, there will be no mentoring nor WICS due to my involvement with the workshop. A bit of a respite for you then, unless you are one of those attending the workshop, in which case you're going to have to suffer me for a whole day - I hope you're looking forward to it, because I certainly am!

With best wishes,
Ian.

PS: don't forget to enter the competition!

.'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'.