Hello once again - it's hard for me to take on board the fact that a whole week seems to have disappeared since I last wrote to you! I just don't know where the time seems to have gone - possibly a sign of the onset of senility?

Anyway, last weekend I suggested that before the next issue of WICS, we would see the major markets fall below their previous lows and with the exception of the FTSE100, that is precisely what has indeed happened. Below, you'll see charts of the Dow and the Dax to highlight this. You can make your own comparison with the FTSE100 and come to your own conclusions.

Continuing last weekend's doom and gloom theme - I really must organise a seance and speak to my scary Granny about all of this - I note that the Council for Mortgage Lenders believes that house prices will rise by 7% this year. It seems also that the chief economist of the Halifax reckons that "rising unemployment and household bills will cause a slowdown" - he seemingly expects prices to rise by only 1%. They wouldn't be biased in favour of trying to keep borrowers feeling reasonably OK, would they? I recall mentioning once before in WICS that prices only rise if someone is willing to pay a bigger amount for something, than they might have done previously.

So if you're selling your pad and asking £300000 for it, a 7% rise would imply that a mug (oops - slip of the pen) - a potential buyer - will come along and say "Wow - you have really underpriced your wonderful property and I want to offer you £321000 for it right now!"

Reality, I suspect, is more along the lines of "£300k - on your bike! I'll give you £200k for it, take it or leave it - I don't care. There are plenty more to choose from, and with better wallpaper too."

Anyway, we'll see how things pan out over the next couple of years but even if I wanted to buy UK property, I would be waiting patiently for a good while yet, to let prices do what they are almost certainly about to do. (By the way, perhaps it's also worth pointing out to those who might be worried by my comments that a) why should you listen to me anyway? and b) if you have bought your house for the extremely sensible purpose of actually living in it, what does it matter if its so - called 'value' drops for a time? Will that mean you'll have one room fewer to sit in? In ten or twenty years or whatever, not only will the mortgage probably be paid off, but very likely the house will have more than recouped any paper losses incurred over the piece. It's only if you actually HAVE to sell for less than you paid - or less than your borrowings - that you really feel the pain. My wife collects paintings, and sometimes a visitor will make the crass remark that they "must be worth a lot of money". My wife's reply is "They have NO monetary worth whatsoever, because I won't be selling them." Maybe that's a good attitude to take, when your house drops in 'paper' value.)

Oh yes - while we're still (sort of) on the subject of borrowing levels - I note that a 'whistleblower' has suggested that banks "Almost put profits before human life." (She was referring to a borrowing - induced suicide). What did she mean, "Almost"?

Moving along, I see that software company iSoft seems to be floundering just a wee bit, and that it may have been a little 'evasive' in the past, when accounting for its 'profit' levels. There are an awful lot of unhappy shareholders if you look at the chart, yet from almost Day One of its launch, the founders were selling their shares - hardly a vote of long term confidence - and they have managed to pull approximately £90m out for themselves. Not bad from their angle - and the chart certainly provided some warning to the punters, surely.

Well, there's not a lot more to say this weekend - seems a lot of people are following some kind of sporting event at the moment and things are a bit quiet overall - and it's getting hot, so I'll wander down to the bottom of the garden and park myself under a suitable tree, with a good book, a few nibbles, and a bottle (oops - another slip of the pen) - a glass of chilled Muscadet.

See you next weekend!

All the best,

Ian.

PS - I had two people email me during the week suggesting that WICS charts only show potential trades AFTER they have happened - which disappointed me just a tad, but there you go. I'll sit and nurse my feelings of rejection, glass in hand, in the shade of my mimosa, and doubtless I'll get over it.

I think I need to reiterate the point very strongly that WICS is entirely educational in purpose - it's NOT designed to provide you with trading recommendations. To think otherwise, is to have missed the point completely.

In any event, I doubt if those concerned have done a lot of trawling through WICS, not even the most recent issues - check out 28th May, guys!!

Nonetheless, I should also make clear the fact that if I have featured a particular potential trade that has now 'gone' then a bit of careful research will almost certainly throw up something very similar, that has NOT already 'gone' - but that research is for you to do yourself. I don't spoon feed subscribers - and you know perfectly well why not.

IW.

.'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'.