Slap in the face from the Big Four

Fair enough. Good point.

But I think the lies banks tell are merely a reflection of what’s expected of them. With everyone from the janitor to the treasurer watching their every step and complaining that the ways they do business are not charitable enough, it’s no wonder that their PR is shrouded in spin.

It feels very strange to be standing up for banks (given that I’m currently in dispute with one large Ausie investment bank), but I liken their public BS to the sort of crap that politicians speak. Pollies lie ‘cos that’s what the masses want to hear. It’s much easier to stay away from negative publicity if they toe the party line.

CRC

I've thought about it but I am highly leveraged and the high interest rates have started to hurt so unless I see the market really turning around I will be leaving my money in my offset account.

However, I've been watching the stock market for a long time and in recent times although it's unpredictable there are certain repeating patterns and if you follow them you could make money.

For example COH had a fantastic run today, it went up by 8.5% but because of the way the market works today, shares that had a very good run for 1 day they generally drift down for 1 or 2 days and then have another good run and so on.

Banks went down today so if there are no bad financial news overnight I'd be buying them. DJS, BKN & UGL should go up as well.
This is not investing though, it reminds me of gambling...

Cheers

certainly if your highly leveraged, I wouldn't consider extending yourself futher, but if you have some spare cash, then investing progressively could be a good idea. I'm re-building my portfolio now, ungeared, and not using borrowed money.

“...... and although CBA lost value today it generally seems to be on the way up”

BV,

No it is not on the way up...
Currently it is ‘cruising’ sideways between $46.70 & $36.98.

That will just be the falling AUD - down over 10% in recent weeks.

Yes, an excellent point. My biggest pet peeve is having my intelligence questioned. As you stated though, it's easier to just say these things because (unfortunately, sad but true) it's what most people want to hear. Appealing to the lowest common denominator and all that.

Mark