is now a good time to buy shares?

[muppet]

ISEQ currently 1999.6!!

IL&P 80c.

And the Oscar for best Direction in a Banana Republic goes to.......the Irish Banks for Slumdog Millionaires.

[orangeman]

The Dow is down to about 7100 today. Don't think many people saw 6000 odds as a possibility.

[orangeman]

Markets are in free fall this morning.



Economy worries hit global shares 

Global markets have been gripped by fears for the financial sector
Global stocks have fallen sharply on fears the global financial sector could take a further turn for the worse.

In Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 fell by 3.2%, while Germany's Dax was down 2.76% and France's Cac 40 lost 2.67%.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed down 288.27 points, or 3.8%, at 7,280.15. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 3.9% to 12,317.5 points.

Investor confidence was hit by poor results from HSBC, where 2008 profits fell by 62% on the previous year.
Europe's biggest bank posted pre-tax profits for the year of $9.3bn (£6.5bn), and it also confirmed its intention to raise £12.5bn ($17.7bn) from shareholders through a rights issue in the UK.

The money will be used to help the bank cope with the effects of the global economic downturn.

Gloomy news

Weak manufacturing figures in both the UK and eurozone also placed downward pressure on European markets.

The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by research group Markit, showed that manufacturing activity fell in February compared with the previous month.

"Once again, the extreme weakness in manufacturing activity in February was widespread across the eurozone, with all countries seeing a very sharp contraction in activity," said Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight.

The figures were particularly badly received because manufacturing activity in both the UK and the eurozone rose slightly in January.

In addition, confidence was knocked by talk that US insurance giant AIG may need a further injection of government cash.

'Desperately searching'

In Asia, weak economic data from China and South Korea underscored fears about the region's export-dependent economies.

China's manufacturing sector declined further last month, while South Korean imports and exports also slumped. Japan reported a steep drop in car sales.

Monday's shares slide followed a poor performance on Wall Street on Friday after data showed that US economic growth was even weaker than thought.

"The Tokyo market is being hit directly by the lower share prices overseas," said Toshihiko Matsuno, research head at SMBC Friend Securities.

John Mar, co-head of sales trading at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. said: "You're seeing the US is sinking lower and lower, and we're still desperately searching for a bottom."

[lfdown2]

quick question, what would happen if i were to buy shares in bank of ireland today and the gov rescue them tomorrow?

[orangeman]

quick question, what would happen if i were to buy shares in bank of ireland today and the gov rescue them tomorrow?

That would depend on the amount of the resuce package.

[lfdown2]

could you provide some detail,

cheers

[Maiden1]

Stick your money on United to win the premiership if you fancy a gamble.  10% return on your money (if they win) and probably as safe a bet as buying shares in a bank at the minute.  Unless you know what you are doing buying shares in any bank is risky at the minute.  They may be cheap because they are in severe danger of being nationalised, in which case your shares would be worth diddly squat.

[orangeman]

Numbers still heading south ! Dow has opened and is down severely on opening.

[muppet]

Here is the DOW Jones chart for the last month:

http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chdet=1236031205025&chddm=7429&q=INDEXDJX:.DJI&ntsp=0

Closed today at 6,763.29.

The ISEQ could have an interesting week especially as according to P.ie the tax take for February will be published tomorrow and the live register figure for Feb are out on Weds.

[orangeman]

Horrible figures - there were a lot of analysts on tonight trying to talk up the market, stating emphatically that this was the "real" bottom - only way is up - but maybe not !

[whiskeysteve]

absolutely know very little to feck all about the markets but there seems to be a lot of people about (not really on this board mind you) that seem very impatient to nip in at the bottom of the market. Never mind the maxim 'dont try to catch a falling knife', surely we will only know when the bottom has been hit several weeks in hindsight of it? And in any case I dont think anyone should worry about missing a sudden upsurge in share prices nearly anywhere for a long while. Their will be no bounce with a recession this bad - confidence will be grudging for a long time. There are still so many things that could get worse unfortunately!

[heganboy]

LOL Heganboy...

actually vol trading and ultra shorts are where the money is right now. VWAP and LWAP are very profitable assuming you have a co-lo and ultra low latency connection. Or of course if you have sub milli access to dark liquidity pools the current volatility leads to a lot of imbalances allowing for low latency arbitration but that mightn't have been what you were asking :-)


[/quote]

and the software solution is .... ?
[/quote]

AH BC I couldnt resist, of course don't forget to ask the other BC for a different opinion

[heganboy]

actually vol trading and ultra shorts are where the money is right now. VWAP and LWAP are very profitable assuming you have a co-lo and ultra low latency connection. Or of course if you have sub milli access to dark liquidity pools the current volatility leads to a lot of imbalances allowing for low latency arbitration but that mightn't have been what you were asking :-)

Is it bad that i dont understand a word of that

Yes- you clampitt- that is bad!

[heganboy]

actually vol trading and ultra shorts are where the money is right now. VWAP and LWAP are very profitable assuming you have a co-lo and ultra low latency connection. Or of course if you have sub milli access to dark liquidity pools the current volatility leads to a lot of imbalances allowing for low latency arbitration but that mightn't have been what you were asking :-)

Yes I actually did alright last yr trading the QID/QLD ultra's..Nice High open interest at the time and i see the Spy Ultra's are now following suit.

you see I knew you were a smarter guy than how you vote (or stir)

[Tyrones own]

is now a good time to buy shares?

Absolutely lads...jump straight in with both feet, Obama says nows not the time to
be worried about it "bobbing up and down" and that the "profits and earnings"
are about right to jump in...what a f**king embarrassment..don't know whether to laugh or shake my head
in disgust at how this buffoon fooled so many people to get elected