Hello again - a fairly brief WICS this weekend, because I have a bit of travelling to do, but since I was able to find a few moments I thought I would put something together for you, to save you from wearying, as my old Mum used to say.

It seems this is going to be the first year for a very long time, when the UK will once again become a net importer of oil.
That will do the balance of payments no good at all, for sure - nor is it likely to help sterling vis a vis other currencies (pretty good for forex traders, though - just wait for my new course!).

Poor Gordon Brown - I almost feel sorry for him. Well, perhaps not - after all, he'll get a fat and entirely undeserved pension in due course, paid for by all the poor folks who will actually suffer as a result of the ongoing monumental mismanagement of the UK economy.

On that topic (economic mismanagement that is, not sympathy for the devil) I posed a question in WICS a while back: "Where has all the money gone?"

In at least a partial answer to the puzzle, one of you (fairly prominent in the NHS hierarchy, it seems) was kind enough to let me know her views regarding the current installation of a new IT system in that organisation.
In a nutshell, her words were "Total disaster - a complete waste of £31bn!"
Yes, you read that figure correctly: 'billion', not 'million'. For a heap of computers and software that apparently are more or less non - functional?
My goodness - I wonder who earned a fat kickback from that lot?

Washing my mouth out, I'll move on to another email, this time from a recently retired military man, who assures me that UK Plc wastes an unbelievable amount of cash on what is laughingly termed 'the defence budget'. It seems the UK burns through £billions of taxpayers' cash in pursuit of 'nonsense' as he puts it. I haven't asked him yet exactly what he means, because I suspect that if he told me, he would then have to kill me. But I gather other European finance ministers simply cannot believe how much the UK wastes thereon.

So maybe that's the real answer - the UK simply wastes a fortune on ludicrous ventures. I don't know, but at least it's an answer of sorts, though no kind of consolation to taxpayers when they are standing on a cold railway platform awaiting a delayed train to wherever, or planning when to be unwell so as to book a medical appointment for the appropriate date.

No change in my character for the New Year then - still as cynical as ever when it comes to politicians!

Moving on to yet another email, this time from a workshop attendee who has clearly been thinking matters through for himself - he was reading somewhere that people seem to be remortgaging and/or using credit cards to buy shares on the back of the recent upward push of the FTSE. As he so rightly suggested, if that's not an indication that a major market peak is close, then nothing is.

As regards today's charts, the first is of Close Brothers and it came from a lady who has been quietly getting on with things per TTEW, and doing just fine as a result. Well done to her!

The other one (Carphone Warehouse) comes as the result of another email (this time, from an unhappy bunny who has no reason to be thus - you'll see what I mean when you examine the chart). I have included it because it illustrates pretty well, how handing back some 'paper profit' is an inevitable part of the TTEW methodology.

Anyway, that's yer lot for this weekend - due to my travels, there will be no WICS next weekend, so I'll speak with you again on 29th January.(I'll be back at my desk from the 23rd, by the way, so please put your emails on 'hold' until then.

Thanks, and good trading.
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'.