Welcome to yet another snowless WICS - this winter is certainly proving to be a bit of a challenge to the mountain areas of Europe, not only in terms of its financial implications to many ski resorts, but also to wildlife - the poor wee marmots usually hibernate until April but already many (too many) of them are sleepily rubbing their eyes and thinking of breakfast. Not good. And we have primroses blossoming in the garden - again not the best scenario, pretty though they are.

Anyway, I'm off on Monday afternoon the 22nd until the following Monday 29th January to find some much higher level skiing in the Alps - most of the really high resorts have loads of snow and with temperatures set to drop dramatically on Sunday evening, there should be some pretty decent white stuff available. Due to high levels of junk mail I may choose not to set autoresponders on the TTEW email addresses so if you get no response next week, you'll know why. (And there will be no WICS next weekend of course.)

As to the markets, well, I don't think there's going to be a great deal to miss out on next week - "More of the same" would pretty much sum matters up at the moment. The USA is holding up rather better and for a bit longer than expected, and although the Nasdaq must be teetering on the brink of a major retrace at the very least, both the Dow and the S&P 500 seem likely to continue upwards for a while yet - but they are all going to offer a selling opportunity soon enough.

In Europe, it seems likely that all the major markets have a fair bit more upside potential before they too give up the ghost, so again, little or nothing has changed. The UK (FTSE100) will likely be the first to lead the inevitable charge to the downside as sentiment begins slowly to alter from excessively bullish to bearish - and that change will become evident once the real impact of rapidly rising inflation and its attendant interest rate hikes begins to hit home at monthly nett salary level. You may recall I spoke a while back about 'change' as regards economic conditions, and how 'stealthy' it is in its early stages - indeed it seems to me that Joe Public doesn't understand it is happening at all until well after the process is fully under way and unstoppable - a bit like climate change perhaps? And for sure, economic conditions HAVE changed and recession is already well under way. You want gloom and doom? You have come to the right place! Private Fraser was my Grandad. But as has been pointed out so frequently, when markets start to fall in earnest, it's only shareholders who suffer (in terms of 'investments' only of course - plenty people suffer in terms of job losses and so on.) TRADERS however - such as ourselves - can expect to 'fill our boots' - an expression that I detest, by the way! The image it conjures up in my mind is far too unsavoury to go into here.......but then again, my family would attest to the rather earthy Williams sense of humour. You just can't take me anywhere.

In any event you might well question the assertion above (that the UK is already in recession) when you read in the media that 'The High Street' had its best Christmas in three years, and that "Retail Sales Surged" over the festive season. All I can say to that is that many years ago, when my funds were more than a little stretched - as in 'non existent' - and I was feeling suitably 'down' as a result thereof, my therapy was to head for a music store and console myself by buying an LP. (For those of you who are not of my vintage (a good year by the way), an 'LP' was a Long Playing Record and was perhaps a little like a big CD that was read by a needle rather than a laser. Now you know.) The point of course being that I was most prone to spending when I could least afford it - and in that particular scenario, I KNOW I'm not alone!

But despite record retail sales and massive Stamp Duty robbery, the National Debt has now broken through resistance at £500bn as Big Government gets on with its Big Spend - again of course when it can least afford to do so with recession looming - so much for Gordon's famous 'purrroooodence' then. He should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act. And don't get me started on 'cash for honours' and 'scapegoats' either. Arrest the goat, I say, not the scape....and it ain't rocket science to work out the goat's identity! There you go - any residual New Year Resolutions have now vanished completely from the Williams consciousness - I'm delighted to report.

Moving along, today's charts are of JJB Sports and MAN Group regarding 'missed opportunites'.....Or are they? Have a look and see what you think. Then we'll look at how a trendline can also provide 'support', using the FTSE100 chart as the example.

Finally, a big welcome to those of you whose New Year Resolutions seem to have included a determination to get to grips with trading for a living - it's gratifying to see such an increase in numbers of new WICS subscribers - just don't be like Weak Williams folks - stick to your resolutions at least in terms of learning to trade! I'm here to help....apart of course from this coming week!

The next issue of WICS will be on Sunday 4th February, so all the best 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'.