Well, there you go then - the closet economist has come out at long last! What a shame that he hadn't been brave enough to do it sooner - Gordon could have been PM these past ten years and SuperTone could have run the economy. My goodness, UK Plc would by now have been so immensely rich that it could have bought up the rest of the world. No sub - prime toxic waste, no credit crunch, maybe even no wars? I refer of course to Saint Tony's new career as a "part time senior adviser" to that paragon of banking probity, J P Morgan. In the Great One's own words, "I have always been interested in economics and commerce"......No, Tony - you have always been interested in MONEY. YOUR money. Your credentials as an economist would be on the 'micro' side, unlike your barefaced greed. Not bad for two or three days a month though - half a million sterling a year, depending of course on the exchange rate - so that will certainly go above two bucks to the pound again with that kind of influence being brought to bear. And he's now shamelessly touting for the EU presidency. What a.......star? Hmm, maybe there are other more accurate descriptions? I'm just jealous, that's all - but I'll bet Gordon is seething!

But at least old Grumpy Gordon has been handed his excuse on a plate by the Bank of England. It doesn't really matter what Mervyn King (governor thereof) does next - he failed to deliver the quarter percent cut in interest rates that the new PM so clearly told him to arrange. A wee bit of double bluff there methinks - of course Gordon DIDN'T want a January cut - don't play poker with this guy! Now that indeed no cut took effect, Gordon can blame that fact from now on, for the coming (and inevitable) recession. "If the BOE had only acted responsibly and had followed my suggestion, there would have been no recession..." - I can hear the excuses now. As if reducing interest rates even by two percent is going to turn the tide now - because NOTHING is going to halt the coming economic debacle. Of course, Gordon will not be to blame - after all, he can only count to two - as in "two percent inflation" - so maybe he genuinely believes a rate cut is sensible. Blame it on a rubbish arithmetic teacher, Gordon - it can't possibly be YOUR fault. Maybe politicians live in a parallel universe, totally oblivious to gas and electricity price increases, the cost of a loaf of bread, petrol....not to mention what's going to happen when people's fixed rate mortgages come up for "renegotiation". It was ever thus - but sometimes it just causes a bit of Williams ranting!

Anyway, rapidly onward before "swearie words" begin to surface in these ramblings - and it seems the USA must really be short of a bob or two - the FBI has had its phones cut off (some of them anyway) for non payment of bills - to the tune of $63000 no less. That surely was a whole lot of wire tapping eh?

And Northern Wreck has just agreed to sell £2bn of its assets to J P Morgan. That would be about ALL of its 'decent' assets then - I wonder if SuperTone had a hand in that? The thing of course is that £2bn would represent barely a couple of years' interest on what is still owed, and it reduces the overall asset base at the same time. Hmm.

Next, the nuclear power thing - yet another major scam. "Consumers will not have to foot the eventual decommissioning costs - operators should set aside funds for their full share of the costs of long term management blah blah......" (spokesman for Gordon). So who actually WILL foot the bill then if it's not electricity consumers? The Tooth Fairy? Maybe I'm missing something here, but I would have thought the operators might incorporate such costs in their tariffs? (Albeit if history is anything to go by, consumers will pay twice anyway - once via the tariff, and then again as taxpayers when the government has to pick up the decommissioning tab from failed operators.) It was ever thus.

Finally, it seems JJB Sports is being made to refund £20 to everyone whom they overcharged for England football shirts. Since said apparel was bought in 2000/2001 and a receipt will be needed, that's going to take at least £40 off their balance sheet then.

Anyway, let's move on rapidly to a chart or two before I go for a lie down in a darkened room to dream about a job with J P Morgan, and today we'll have a look at a potential 'up' triangle in Biffa, followed by possible resistance about to form on JKX Oil and Gas. Then we'll examine possible support on the chart of Rightmove before finishing off with a wee update on the FTSE100's current situation.

But just before wishing you well till next weekend, let me share an email with you, that was received during the week:

"Ian
Congratulations on a fine call re Berkeley. I had fancied it but taking into account your counselling not to, if too expensive, on WICS I refrained. I did this as a discipline as I really thought it would go well. On the face of it I missed out, but in the greater scheme of things I adhered to the TTEW methodology. At the time it did not fit and was outside the parameters due to £2k account. Having increased my bank now it would be taken. There will however be plenty more I am sure.
Kind regards,
Laurie."

Now THAT is the kind of email I just love to receive! It would be fair to say that Laurie was pretty much a beginner a couple of months or so ago. Let me tell you, he has been working his socks off to learn this stuff (and he has a demanding full time job, by the way.) His analysis and thinking is getting better and better all the time and he has several profitable trades on the go, but his REAL 'winning attitude' is shown by his total willingness to stand aside from that which he knows is meantime unaffordable. And of course he has been prepared to put in the work. I'm confident that with that kind of approach, Laurie is going to be a long term success at this job!

On that note, all the best till next weekend - the sun is out and although the skiing is a tad crowded on a Sunday, there's a sunny terrace and a mulled wine calling me!

Ian.

You'll see where I have marked 'bought?' on the chart above - that was a (small) break to the upside above the line of horizontal resistance. I hope you can also see the 'triangle' I have marked - use the WICS search engine for more about these - singular and plural. If you HAD bought there, that was a perfectly valid 'TTEW' thing to have done, and a SL even as tight as the 25 DMA (so far) has kept you in the trade. If you look at the volume where I have marked '??' you'll note that it is increasing while the share price itself is pretty static. That could mean a bit of jockeying for position & some buying by bigger players - the overall 'look' of this chart after the recent big push up tends to hint at the possibility of 'M&A' activity. (Merger & Acquisition - worth checking if there are any 'stories' surrounding this stock. Where next? If it breaks upwards it looks highly likely to keep going for a while - we shall see in due course.

A couple of emails from you re this one - wondering if it had been a sensible buy above 400. Easy to say with hindsight that it was of course - but with possible resistance around 444 it certainly wouldn't be one to chase right now! NB - 'resistance' at 444 has yet to form because the area there - ie 440 - has so far only been breached once, a good while ago. If now the price reaches/exceeds the previous high, there could be a bit of profit taking - 'getting out with a sigh of relief'perhaps after a pretty long wait. And of course thereafter the price might well just keep rising - really upsetting those who 'only wanted their money back'!

Here, we can see clear support on 420 - but we can also see earlier resistance on 400, so that figure obviously 'matters' to shareholders in this stock. (400, as with any such round number, always 'matters' to a degree, but the more resistance and/or support a price features, the MORE it 'matters' in any specific situation.) Now, if it breaks its most immediate support, will it bounce back up off 400? That's the question you need to ask - and also (given that any prospective SL would still need to be as high as 461- even if using as tight a DMA as the 25) would it really be sensible to sell below 420 or would a losing stopout be more likely? Might it not be better to wait and see how it behaves the next time it reaches 400? It may never do so of course, but that's not something I would bet on!

If you have access to the video updates, this one will be familiar to you. Now, not only has the triangle been broken (to the downside - not totally expected by myself to be honest - I expected more short term strength) - but the most recent support has also been breached. Therefore (in terms of probability) it's quite likely that the next 'stopping off point' will be around 6000. It's also likely that such a 'seriously round number' that also had much previous significance will then cause a bounce back upwards as per the blue arrows above. There are no guarantees of course - it's possible that a break below 6000 will keep right on heading downwards. But somehow I doubt it because the Bank of England will now be under massive pressure to cut interest rates and the stockmarket will react positively to that event - or should I say, participants will react positively - but in the longer run it will make no difference because 'down' is the new 'up' for a few years to come methinks!

'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'.