"Bank of England cuts interest rate - mortgages still go up!" Not an actual headline during the week, as far as I'm aware - but the theme was certainly one that the media and the politicos jumped on. Mr Cable, a politician, suggested that banks were "profiteering" and of course that was a VERY BAD THING and should be legislated against forthwith. It's just plain wrong that banks be permitted to boost their profits by blaming the credit crunch. Hmm - Vince, you are somewhat off channel with that concept. Banks are NOT "boosting profits" as a result of the credit crunch. They have lost so much of their own equity these past ten months or so - and there are a lot more losses to be announced, you may be certain - that all they are doing for now is being sensible at last and trying to rebuild their (pretty shaky) balance sheets. Instead of lending willy - nilly to anyone who could get a mortgage broker to fill in - or "modify" - a form saying "suitable" things (type "ninja" into the search engine if you're new to the Williams weekend ramble) they are now being picky - my goodness, they're only lending to people who might actually be able to repay! That's just so anti social of them. And the latest HSBC wheeze - doubtless you'll have read plenty about it so I won't bother regurgitating the details - is a pretty good way of picking up business from "quality" borrowers. Rest assured they won't be remortgaging a Northern Wreck "125% of equity" job!

Still with property, it was interesting to note the CML's comment during the week (Council of Mortgage Lenders) that there's really nothing to worry about. Seemingly there is an "unborrowed" £2.5 trillion of "property wealth" in the UK. According to some extremely weird logic, that means homeowners are pretty much OK overall in terms of equity as related to borrowings. According to the (admittedly also off the wall) Williams logic, the only "positive" in the figure has nothing to do with mortgages. It surely means that many homeowners have NO mortgage and thus are not at risk of an unpleasant interview with their mortgagor unless they can't service other borrowings. That kind of "unborrowed" equity is effectively not available to spend if you think about it. The roof over your head in that sense is NOT a financial asset - it's a roof over your head, no more, no less. The financial beneficiaries of your ownership are far more likely to be your heirs than yourself. And it's a costly asset to maintain - a fact the Anglo Saxon mentality generally seems to miss. (A while back in WICS I mentioned my wife's painting collection and it might be worth typing the exact phrase "collects paintings" into the search engine if you're at a loose end some time. It's relevant to home ownership, I promise.) The other thing to type in when you have a moment might be "ability to repay" (exact phrase.) I had always thought in my old-fashioned way that there were two main criteria for acquiring a mortgage: 1) sufficient equity, and 2) ability to service the borrowings. Those long gone days have just come back with a vengeance! Maybe now a few more old-fashioned ideas will also return - such as "willingness to work hard" and "personal responsibility"? Dream on, Williams! Finally - before moving on from mortgages etc - Gordy has reassured everyone of course by saying that "Property price falls are containable and the underlying economy is sound." So that's OK then, and the IMF is totally wrong in seeing the potential for a 30% fall in UK house prices, together with recession. It's a job working out whose take on the matter is the more accurate. Oh yes, and the same Brown one who gave the Bank of England its independence from government interference amid a veritable fanfare of "this is how truly great chancellors ensure the long term control of inflation" is now muttering darkly into his begging bowl on a corner of Threadneedle St that "interest rates need to be cut further".......Gordy - you can have 'em cut all you want because it won't make a hoot of difference to what is happening. Lenders have woken up once more, at long last, to the concept of being repaid - so they'll nae be throwing cash at every chancer that asks for it - at least not until in a few years' time the entire mess has been forgotten by the sheep and the wheel turns full circle - as it always does. (Remember these wheels from the TTEW manual?)

Moving on then to matters TTEW, and still with the manual, do you recall a section about "looking for trades/trawling the charts/doing your own research/easy doesn't imply lazy" etc? Well, I thought it might be worth reiterating that whilst the TTEW methodology is EASY enough to learn, it doesn't mean it's a LAZY methodology! It's a matter of "taking ownership" and being willing to put in a wee bit of work - especially in the early stages. Sure, there are maybe around 350 share charts involved, plus a few investment trusts, and some indices, from which to compile a "watch list" - but that doesn't mean you need to sit down and go through the whole lot at one sitting! You'll find twenty or so "possibles" from less than half the total number available to trade - and from the twenty, you'll find ten "strong possibles" easily enough if you apply the "rules". (Dmas, resistance, support etc etc - look through a few recent WICS & watch some of the videos for plenty "direction" about such things.) And let me suggest too, that even trawling through the entire available universe of the stocks, trusts and indices that you might actually be able to trade (FTSE100 & 250, major indices, and maybe the top 50 investment trusts by market capitalisation) would take you less time than you might think - if you have a disciplined approach. How long does it take just to "dismiss" a chart that is of no current interest? (Legal & General might be an example, to give you an idea of what I mean - what DMA lengths might be needed to manage a potential trade? Sure - if it falls below the June 06 & January 08 lows that form clear support, it might drop. But given how near to 100 are these lows, & given the DMA comment above, why waste time?) In fact, I just timed my look at that chart in order to suggest the foregoing, and I also timed how long it has taken my two fingers to type these words. Less than ninety seconds in total! OK, so I'm practised at the game, but suppose you averaged five minutes per chart, both "dismiss" and "initial watch list", how long would it actually take to go through the whole lot? About 35 hours is the answer. Take a month - just over one hour a day. How much telly do you watch? Anyway, it's up to you!

The other point to make today - yes folks, this is a bit of a "yell at a few recent subscribers" kind of a WICS but I make no apology. You have paid good money for the course. Presumably therefore you're motivated to succeed as a trader. I'm motivated to help you do exactly that but without wishing to sound arrogant, my time is valuable - EVERYONE's time is valuable, it's just that some folks don't recognise that till they reach their twilight years - and that's just plain sad to the Williams way of viewing things - "carpe diem" and all that stuff is the family motto.......(actually it's "semper in excreta" for all you Latin scholars - if you're not into the Classics, "semper" means "always" and you can work out the rest for yourself!)

OK - moving quickly along, it was interesting to note that the "big business" which to the Williams way of thinking is the true driving force behind seemingly "political" decisions, is alive and well and influencing things as usual. Tesco is suing both the Guardian and a couple of Thai reporters - one for £16.4m - for allegedly telling fibs about the oh - so - ethical grocer. And Asda wants the "Code of Conduct" (that theoretically prevents suppliers to the big supermarkets being bullied or pressurised in terms of the prices they can achieve) NOT to apply to overseas suppliers. Ethical behaviour to their usual standards then.

And a nice wee pay packet for a Yank hedge fund manager who sold property stocks over the past year - only $3bn. Nae bad. His name is Paulson - I trust no relation to one Henry of the same surname? (Use Google if you don't know who Henry Paulson might be.)

Scams during the week - the "Universitas Leadership Sanctuary"? (Again, try Google if you haven't yet heard of that wonderful idea....) And Gordon & Dave ganging up against the SFO anent any prospect of their reopening an enquiry into BAE? Of COURSE BAE did nothing wrong in giving a Saudi prince £1bn and a (very big) aeroplane! How could anyone think otherwise, for goodness' sake? Anyway, there's possibly far more cash involved than a measly £1bn - there's seemingly also an oil slush fund that's been running for years, ever since the days of the Iron Lady and her chum Sheikh Heseltine........

Moving along before "they" catch up with me - the "blame game" continues - DSG's recent profits warning is due to the public only choosing to buy their "special offers"! That's a cracker - it certainly beats "a big boy did it and ran away" from the Williams schooldays. According to a DSG (Currys & PC World) spokesman, "Shoppers are increasingly deal - driven." No, surely not? On a serious note, methinks there's a lot more wrong with DSG than just the matter of discounting however. We'll see.....And how will travel agents fare over the coming months? The Pound sterling is in a total mess - perhaps giving the lie to Gordon's confidence about UK Plc as mentioned above, and jobs are disappearing all over the place to boot. I suspect that next season's ski holiday (which is almost always a "second" or even "third" holiday for people, taking a lower priority than the summer break) may simply not happen - to be cruel, that suits a certain Mr W. just fine of course - but it's not that amusing really because jobs are certain to be lost within the travel & leisure sectors. Even just staying in Blighty for a holiday costs an arm and a leg. Again, we'll see how things pan out.

Anyway, that's all for this weekend - plenty to think about! Charts today are only to highlight what I meant about "trawling for potential trades" in terms of those that can be dismissed very rapidly - the "TTEW lessons" will be in the video clips tonight. (Always bear in mind please, that the videos and WICS are meant to complement each other, although not necessarily on the same weekend!) We'll look below at Legal & General & Forth Ports, using the 'default' 25/45 DMAs - which are the first ones to use when trawling. If something looks 'consistent' if it gets support or resistance near or on the 45, then you might alter the setting to 45/65, and if on the 65, then go to 65/85 - always bearing in mind that TOO long a dma = handing back a lot of potential profit and maybe even getting too many paper profits turn into cash losses. It's not rocket science, honestly - and you know you can email me if you get a bit lost.

OK - this afternoon looks like the last sunny day for a week or so, which means some rays need to be acquired - so I'll speak to you again next weekend as usual. Happy trawling until 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'.