Well, the mighty Dollar certainly will be nursing a fairly substantial Thanksgiving hangover this weekend - it took quite a tumble towards the end of the week. What amazes me about this is the surprise evinced by many commentators - they still seem to believe the good ol' greenback is invulnerable. Its fall must surely be the result of a foreign conspiracy then, and nothing to do with massive USA indebtedness. Oh well - we all suffer our wee delusions - apart from myself of course.....sorry - must rush - Josephine wants me to invade Russia before I change for dinner.

Anyway, what does a fall in the Dollar mean for UK Plc? Basically, it means that what few exports the Brits still manage to produce and sell to the Yanks, are now costing our cousins across the pond a lot more than they used to - ergo, they will probably buy fewer of them. Given that commentators during the week were noting that "falling consumer demand within the UK economy is being offset by improved performance in the corporate sector, as a result of stronger export figures" you might be able to work out 'what happens next'. Never let it be said that economic reportage is ever up to date with events - perish the thought.

Moving along, I note that my cynical remarks in a much earlier WICS - in regard to the likely cost overruns for the Olympics - were pretty close to the truth, although I rather suspect you "Ain't heard nothin' yet." Jack Lemley (the American construction consultant brought in by Tony to run the show - he probably couldn't find a Brit crazy enough to get involved) has 'moved on' claiming 'excessive political interference'. Gosh - surely not? Anyway, current guesstimates for the total costs are now running in the region of £8bn - you might recall that original government figures suggested £2.4bn. Given that someone at the Treasury 'forgot' to add VAT to their first stab in the dark, what price £10bn or even more by the time it's all (un)finished?

Another snippet that has been widely reported of course was the comment by one of Gordon's erstwhile chums, David Miles (Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley) that Britain should "expect a sharp fall in house prices over the next two to three years." Nae peerage for him then.

Next, thanks to one of you for pointing out (anent my comments last weekend about 'quote' vs 'cash' prices being used by spread bet companies) that Finspreads' internet platform still offers order and stop loss placement on a cash basis. Long may that continue - as I have suggested before, shopping around is always a good idea.

Finally this weekend (for once I actually managed to finish writing this offering by lunchtime Saturday due to my own weekend commitments, but ironically my webmaster has had to go away at short notice so this won't be online till perhaps midnight on Sunday) just a reminder that there will be no WICS next weekend, due to my own travel arrangements. I'm off back to the snow for the winter (Yee - Hah!) and I'll be out of email contact from Wednesday evening 29th November till Friday 8th December - I don't plan to put up autoresponders on my email addresses this time because of the massive amounts of junk mail they attract - so please just hold on to your questions between the 29th November and 8th December - thanks.

Moving along to today's charts, have a look back at those of 12th November and see what has happened to the 'gap down' on CSR - you'll note that I suggested several options in regard to stop loss (SL) management - today I'm just updating the chart for you.

Next, there's a chart of St James' Place Plc, just to show you how a valid trade could have taken on a triangle breakout - resulting in a 'perfect' LOSING trade, followed by a fresh entry on a break of resistance, and its eventual WINNING stopout using the 25 dma as the 'manager' - fairly classic TTEW style trading in fact. (This is not being shown so that I can pretend to be clever - it's here today because some of you good people took both the loser and the winner in TTEW style, and very well done to you! As often mentioned, taking a fresh trade on the same share after a loser needs you to remain totally objective. It's also of course now a good example of the need for patience, in terms of "what might happen next".)

Oh yes, and have a look at Morgan Crucible - if it falls below its 20th October 'low', might it have a good bit further to drop?

All the best then, till 10th December.

Ian.

PS - after its most recent few days' fall, will the FTSE 100 keep dropping now in the 'big trend change' that I keep banging on about? Nope - not yet in my view - it's still only retracing within an overall uptrend. Patience, patience..........

'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'.