Another weekend appears out of nowhere - welcome once again to these ramblings. Doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself! (Don't forget - if your no cost sub is expiring - that this is the final WICS before your password changes on 31st January. Ongoing subscribers will receive their new access details during the course of the week, and "imminent expiries" should also receive an email over the next few days inviting them to continue via the form that's at www.trading-the-easy-way.com/stoform.htm ) This is also a good place to remind those with unreliable ISPs that my webmaster has put some very useful stuff about email management on the TTEW website - have a look under "info" and take things from there if that applies to you. Nothing is more annoying and time consuming than dealing with non - receipt of email.

OK - with that bit of admin out of the way, on to today's offering - and you'll know by now of course, that UK Plc is now "officially" in recession. A caustic remark from IW would be superfluous. Some of the Broon one's comments ARE worth repeating, however: "The essential problem is the resumption of lending and the expansion of lending...." Broon of course meant that the problem is a LACK of lending as far as he's concerned. Did I ever mention something about cutting open another artery to see if that slows the bleeding from the first one? (Try the search engine!) And now he's planning a "rescue" of the retail motor trade via some kind of cheap loan scheme to allow people with nae money, to borrow some to get a new car. Oh dear - there really are nae brains out there at all, are there? Then he came out with this pearl of wisdom: "We have low public debt". That statement of course uses the wrong tense, Gordy. "Had", not "Have". His next uttering is a real doozie: "Nobody saw the possibility of market failure...." Really?

Moving along before thinking about politicians begins to get to me, the banking sector took another hammering during the week - all the fault of these nasty short sellers of course. Wee Allie's (UK chancellor - supposedly - if you're unfamiliar with the name - and who can blame you?) eyebrows seemingly went on fire when he heard just an hour beforehand, that the short - selling ban on financial stocks was being lifted by the FSA. Clearly the ongoing fall of the banking sector has nothing at all to do with the other $50trn or so of toxic waste that has still not been found.......Try the search engine for more about "short selling".

And talking of people "getting to me" - as a Scot, I am truly ashamed that RBS has just posted the biggest loss in UK corporate history, with nary a smidgen of remorse from the Goodwin person, who has gone to ground accompanied by his extremely fat payoff. My Grandfather (husband of Really Scary Granny) died at his desk in 1953 as a senior RBS manager. I never knew him - but if there were really such a thing as "turning in the grave", he will be birling at some speed at the moment! Mr Goodwin - you'll probably never actually say "sorry" to all those whose lives you have messed up - but you're a sorry creature for all that. And as for the "Sir" bit.......

And as for that other (allegedly Scottish) paragon of financial probity, Sub Standard Life - how can a "cash" fund LOSE money? The "Pension Sterling Fund" was supposedly designed as a place to "park" pension assets in the run up to activating said pension. ("Vesting".) A safe haven to get the dosh out of the volatility of the investment arena. So that people coming up to their vesting date could feel safe. Etc etc. Now it turns out that 44% of the fund is/was in "asset backed securities". "Toxic waste" is the more accurate description. Having read the above, you'll realise that words haven't failed me - only the swearie words have been left out - but if you still harbour any notion that the Scottish financial sector is renowned for its prudent and canny approach, that tense too is incorrect. "Was", not "Is", sadly.

(By the way - when my RBS grandfather died, he left a fair old share portfolio - as tended to be the case back then for people in his kind of job. The first thing my Really Scary Granny did, was sell the lot. She used the proceeds to buy a farm in the Highlands - and even with the current property collapse, it would be fair to say SHE certainly proved to have been a canny Scot!)

Moving along, but still re banks, it seems they are going to stop selling PPI (in the search engine) after a lot of pressure from consumer groups and the FSA. Goodness, how are they going to be able to turn a profit? Oops, sorry - I forgot that banks don't actually "do" profits these days.

Next, it seems that USA housebuilding is at an all time low, and home repossessions are running at over 3000. That's 3000 a DAY - terrifying stuff if you stop to consider, and a harbinger of outright depression. What real chance does Obama have of doing much other than ending up with the blame for something he had nothing to do with? Gosh - IW almost defending a politician eh? Whatever next? Oh sure, he'll make an even bigger mess of things because politicians cannot do otherwise, but nonetheless, it's hard to pin any immediate blame on the guy.

On then to a few scams - it would almost be worth keeping a tally thereof as the year progresses, because more and more of them are going to be unearthed in 2009 according to the RSG's crystal ball. The German chip (as in electronic chip) maker that got a $416m bailout only a month ago before going bust the other day, might well qualify under the "scam" heading. At the very least, "due diligence" by the bailout masters didn't happen but methinks there could be a tad more to the story. Then of course there's the Chilean "French Magic Cheese" thing where some Frenchwoman managed to persuade a load of Chileans to buy cheese making gear, the product thereof being sold on "guaranteed contract" to a Paris cosmetics manufacturer that allegedly would use it to help make women's skin all soft and lovely.......Honestly, how could anyone make this stuff up? Anyway, said Frenchwoman paid up for the first consignments, so her suppliers were happy to buy even more gear, and to persuade friends and relatives to do likewise, in a classic Ponzi (ie pyramid) scheme. Needless to say, Madame Cheesebuyer eventually vanished and left a few hundred tons of extemely smelly stuff in a Chilean warehouse....silly of her to have gone back to France however, because she has been traced and awaits extradition. And then there's the Irish American priest who has just confessed to having nicked over $800000 from Californian collection plates. Another priest is denying having been involved, and the cops reckon maybe $8m in total is the true score, spent on fancy houses, wine, women, gambling - all the good things in life really. Gosh - almost as bad as bankers eh?

Porsche is being accused of causing some hedge funds to lose money (via the "manipulation" of VW stock). Golly, what's the world coming to? Given that they stopped making proper cars in 1989, how else are they meant to turn a penny?

And still with car - related scams (of a sort) it seems Mitsubishi is bringing out an electric version. It is similar in size to the laughably named "Smart" car - ie tiny - and can travel an amazing 100 miles between charges. The makers seemingly are so chuffed with it that they're thinking of NOT selling it.......the plan will be to lease the vehicles, for a mere £750 a month....Listen fellas - you could lease a decent secondhand Maserati for that kind of dosh - and if your conscience bothers you, just remember that a secondhand car has already been built and doesn't use up the resources required to add yet another superfluous vehicle to the roads. And if you're really into saving the planet, the £9000 a year needed to lease the dinky toy, could buy a perfectly nice late - model Fiat 500 outright......go figure, to quote the Yank brother in law!

A scam that ended its thankfully short life, was the MP and peers' expenses thing mentioned in last weekend's WICS - but as with the Equitable Life stuff, expect a few razor wire fences and deep ditches between you and the information.

Back to Scotland for a moment, and some good news - it appears the UK's best fish and chip shop is located in Fife. Tough luck, Rick Stein! (If in fact you're ever in Cornwall and fancy a fish supper, there's a far better place than Stein's place in Padstow anyway, in Wadebridge just a few miles up the river.) It appears that chippers are doing very well in recession - understandably so, and an awful lot healthier than a visit to McDo for sure.

Oh, and one more piece of good news before we look at a chart or two - Imperial College London appears to have developed a new type of cement (appropriately named "Novacem") that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it produces. During this recession/depression, maybe not a lot of it will be needed, but once the wheel turns and economies recover, it may prove a massive success - we'll see. And if you're a beer drinker in the UK, how about Wetherspoon's 99p pint then? Desperation or very clever? Nae dividend payments for the foreseeable future = "clever" perhaps?

Anyway, on to today's charts and the first is of a building supplies company (Wolseley) - not likely to be selling much cement of any variety at the moment perhaps? There's certainly a developing triangle in the downwards path - and we'll also see that the 30/50 DMAs seem to have worked pretty well in the past as trade managers here (with the usual leeway that I always allow of course.) The Wetherspoon chart that follows is just an update from last weekend, and is shown here again tonight, partly because of the mention in the text above and partly because of the fact that the recent action (despite the 99p pint and lack of dividend - or because of it?) more or less held support on the bottom of the triangle and is again pushing up. Then we'll look at an interesting pair of channels on the chart of Go-Ahead Group and why support may be about to be broken. FInally we'll examine the RTSI (Russian) index, last looked at here on December 21st 2008 - just to show how "things move on" and how lines previously positioned, often need to be redrawn to reflect ongoing market action - that process is part and parcel of learning how to trade successfully!

And that's all for this weekend - a sudden outbreak of sunshine after two nights of fresh snow, means that my attention has been diverted from the computer - so all the best till next weekend - and if you're not planning to continue suffering these ramblings, all the best in your trading career - you can "come back" any time you wish, to a warm welcome!

Ian.

PS - have a look at an interesting article on www.monbiot.com - "A better way to make money". It's unlikely Mr M and I would have much in common overall, but the piece is certainly worth a read!

'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'.