john banks

What are you buying?

I'm not buying banks as I think there is a danger of losing all your money if they collapse.

If the FTSE 100 goes below 4000 I'll probably buy.

NotoriousREV

China, Metals

I'm an idiot, though

Turbo2

A sausage roll for lunch today I reckon.

PeteBrant

Risky.

I've heard the pastry market is going to be a bit flat today; and the forecast is for sausagemeat to have toxic debt.

EddScott

Have a bet on it will be end of play Friday.

Dieseldog

... not knowing anything about investing and all, but aren't you a bit late for Brazil? The strength of the Real (up by 40% over the last 18 months, suggests to me any potential has already been taken up, does it not?

john banks

BBC NEWS | Business | Market Data | Currencies | Sterling v Real

Dieseldog

well I hadn't looked at it for at least a month lol...

r32

Northern Rock

john banks

It moves that fast! US, UK and ECB have just done a coordinated interest rate cut. 0.5% off the BoE base rate.

vindaloo

I haven't looked at Japan for ages.

If I was more of a betting man, I'd look @ Santander (Abbey). They've been in the news buying up bits of Alliance and Leicester and B&B.

Aside from that, Brazil's economy is set to suffer if there's a global recession. Demand for raw materials and heavy industrial processing will drop off.

Likewise, BP, Shell... A USA recession will hurt demand figures and lead to the price dropping and hence the share price.

J.

john banks

Agree re oil, commodities, manufacturing, I'm buying because I think these might be getting priced in.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

You could of lost that bet as the FTSE has responded positively to the drop in interest rates

john banks

Already £1400 up on this morning's purchases

I'm sure they'll be worth 5p next week.

Devildog

Depends on the amounts.

RBOS has to be worth a look - if it goes "bust" we may have more to worry about than a few grand lost on the stock market...

TopBanana

Nothing. Now's a good time to sit tight IMO. Bargains aren't going to disappear overnight.

alloy

Short of the market is the only place to be

MJW

John, do you reckon there's still any mileage in gold these days ? I realise that 4-5 years ago you'd probably have made a killing, but what about now ?

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

bp shares are good at the moment, wont be long before they go back up. I work on a castrol (bp) site that is closing at the end of the year, a guy who is being made redundant at the end of oct will come out with about 25k in shares he has told me. About 3 months back they were worth over 30k

unclebuck

Yea, I've heard it's gone a bit flakey.

john banks

MJW, I sold most of my gold recently, a combination of panic about the status of ETF securities/AIG and also disappointment that gold did not seem to be actually hedging against disaster very well. Maybe the dollar's gains have been a dead cat bounce, maybe a recognition of reserve currency status if we head into a deflation. However, I expected a dramatic response from gold when we had negative real interest rates and didn't get it.

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

We've an appartment block in Brazil. It was worth about £30-£40k, two years later nearer £70-£80k and that's allowing for the poor exchange rate at the moment.

Deep Singh

Nothing at the moment. Bought some gold (physical) when it was about $770 spot. Like you though suprised it did not rocket over the last few days with all the turmoil. But I do believe in gold, physical only though for me.

Wouldn't put a penny anywhere at the moment, cash is and will be king