Well, the month rolls on and here we are at the final WICS to be produced from this particular location - I thought the day would never arrive! Those of you who suffer my video updates will be aware of the ongoing internet connection "challenge" of the past couple of months, soon to be a thing of the past - yippee.

Anyway, enough of the Williams euphoria at heading back to the winter quarters, and on to matters of considerably more interest. First, it seems that Northern Loose Shale shareholders are "shocked and horrified" that their stock might end up worthless, with both Messrs Branson and Flowers rumoured to be looking to take it off the taxpayers' hands for £1. (That's £1 for the lot mind, not £1 a share.) It's only a rumour of course, but given its overall debt and the revelation that much of its alleged 'worth' (the mortgage book) might not even be owned by the Crock, what does anyone think the shares are truly worth? It would appear that the Darling Chancellor might have got it all just a wee bit wrong when he told everyone the other week that the British taxpayers' massive loan was "fully secured". Hmm - his only consolation I guess is that the whole world knows he's only a poor wee glove puppet anyway - and he also knows that HE wasn't the one who sold half of the UK's gold stocks at $275 an ounce, among a veritable plethora of other crazy decisions. A purroodent puppetmaster behind the curtain all right. No need to mention the missing Revenue discs I suppose - although again it's noteworthy to hear Gordon's - sorry - the chancellor's - promise that if anyone loses money through that particular fiasco, either the banks or the government will compensate them. Twenty - five MILLION of them? Sure, that's very much a worst case scenario but can you imagine the cost? Did I mention something last weekend about "lunatics being in charge of the asylum"? Aagghh.

Moving along (by the way, the above rant shouldn't be taken as a "political" thing - Williams has no specific bias - I utterly despise them all, whichever swamp they might have slithered out of, and I only ever mention politicians anent "matters economic") it appears that Jaguar and Land Rover will probably be moving into Indian ownership, via either Tata or Mahindra. That should provide a familiar and comfortable environment for them, given that all four of the above companies compete fiercely against each other for bottom place in the annual "vehicle reliability and customer service" league tables. When the poor old Jeep was written off so comprehensively the other year, in a moment of weakness I was persuaded by the local Land Rover dealer to have another attempt at getting on with a Discovery......big mistake. What a heap of junk - Mahindra or Tata have no idea what they might be taking on. (This family is now back in the Jeep camp, thank goodness.) In a wee aside, it's fascinating to note that in Ireland, ALL such vehicles are known as "Jeeps", whichever company manufactured them - even on official documentation. I guess it's a bit like "Hoover" when actually what is meant is "vacuum cleaner" but it's amusing to see "Land Rover Jeep" on a log book! Big compliment to Land Rover, huge insult to Jeep.....

Sorry - onward then! And before I forget, reference last weekend's comments about gold and oil prices dropping substantially, I should have added that they will almost certainly push up a lot higher yet before they co-operate with the Williams prediction, in a final "blowoff" phase that will see most world indices also push strongly upwards. Economically speaking - crazy. But it will happen! More loonies/asylum scenarios there, for sure.

Next today, I note that Donald Trump (possibly not the world's most successful property developer) has persuaded Aberdeenshire's planning department to give him the go-ahead for a £1bn golfing development near Balmedie, potentially ruining one of only four major European sand dune habitats. I guess the "promise" of 5000 jobs, mega hotels, 500 houses etc etc was just too much to resist - but it's unlikely that the environmentalists will have too much to worry about because Mr Trump may find backing pretty hard to get now that the credit crunch is well and truly under way - and you can rest assured that even if he had £1bn of his own dosh, he wouldn't be committing a whole lot himself to the project.

Moving on, I note that Bradford & Bingley seemingly "accepted a cut in value of its commercial loan book" when it sold £4bn worth the other week. They're not saying how much of a cut of course, but methinks they were pretty lucky to get rid of it for that kind of money.

Oh yes, and it looks like Steve McLaren handed a brilliant excuse to Sports Direct for the latest in the long line of its profits warnings - good man! Maybe he'll get a job as a director thereof? He certainly deserves some kind of recognition for his efforts.

And finally, before we look at a chart or two, it's interesting to note the John Lewis' plan to double in size and open 24 new stores at "various well - researched locations" (their words). Since they include Dublin in these locations, you have to query the "well - researched" bit. A word to the "researchers" - guys, the Celtic Tiger roared his last well over a year ago. He's recumbent and scarcely breathing - it won't be long now until he finally expires. Many of the big construction sites (and you ain't even SEEN a "construction site" if you've never driven around Dublin's M50) will be closed indefinitely as of the Christmas holidays, house repossession rates put even Northern Wreck's aggression to shame, and Ireland - based American pharma and IT companies are shedding jobs like there was no tomorrow....in fact, in terms of economics, there IS no tomorrow for Ireland - not for the foreseeable future at least. Delightful people - such a shame about the totally inept management of their economy. The somewhat derogatory words used to describe the lazy/aimless of the world: "Standing around like one of Lewis' " will never be more apt than if they go ahead with these new stores (not just the Dublin ones, because UK Plc isn't looking too healthy either) - seemingly Japanese architects will be involved so it will all be very fancy - schmancy..... but nae customers to trouble the staff.....I might be wrong, but we'll see.

Okay, let's take a wee look at a chart or two, and today we'll look at one of the "basics" of the TTEW methodology, by way of a reminder to you old stagers, and to help the understanding (hopefully) of you new folks, to whom a big welcome of course. I'm speaking about "horizontal support and resistance" - and we'll look at some examples thereof on the charts of Punch Taverns, Marylebone Warwick Balfour, and Daily Mail & General Trust.

That's all for this weekend - please note that there will be no WICS next weekend because we're hitching up the donkey cart and heading back to the winter pastures. I'll be offline and unable to deal with mentoring questions between Tuesday 27th November (about 5pm) and Tuesday 4th December - and if you're wondering why travelling takes me so long, please direct that question to the donkey.

Also, while I remember - there seems to be a bit of a spam attack on the go, in the guise of "undeliverable email notifications" so I'm deleting all such messages without bothering to check whence they emanate. If it happens that I have replied to an email of yours but you haven't heard from me, please try again now, or after 4th December. (Bouncebacks only happen if you haven't properly whitelisted my addresses, by the way - ie you haven't added wics@... and mentor@.... to your address book).

Okay, all the very best until 9th December then.

Ian.

PS - as mentioned this evening to those of you with access to the video updates, if you're finding that potential 'buy' trades can be pretty hard to see at the moment, for goodness' sake don't go opening a dozen 'sells' - because when the markets bounce up (and they will!) you might well find that to have been a bad idea. Sure, proper SL management should keep you in any decent, well chosen sell despite a bounce, but nonetheless it's a bad idea to have too much of an imbalance overall between buys & sells.

'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'.