Golden Shower

Do you think the Tories would do a better job? No way should they govern util they can pull thei fingers out.

LOL! No wonder you're going to spend the rest of your life renting. Hope you have a good night and remember to leave a bit of your money aside for your LL's pension. As for the sentiment argument, one day house prices are rising the next day they're crashing. I think economic data is the only thing you can really rely on and that's still positive.

Wow. The bears deperation knows no bounds. Quoting The Mirror is probably the most laughable/desperate thing I've seen on HPC for a while.

Yep and he's made a rough stab at 2007...8% growth again. Posters on TMF and here have slated him because he's not a bear, but I wouldn't disregard his opinion at all. Indeed I follow it quite closely.

Do you know Halifax put prices up by 1.7% this month? We've got YoY growth at 8%, there's a long way to go for your crash.

Another property forum, but beware, while many have good things to say many here seem to think they a part of an elite group of investors. KoN and freddie are normally good posters and are well worth a read. http://boards.fool.co.uk/Messages.asp?bid=51402

He still posts on TMF, always makes good reading and a lot of sense too. Although the fella gets so much stick for abandoning his bear position, doubt he's worried though he must be up about 10% since he bought.

Yes, mortgage approvals are very strong, anyone remember the last figures? Something like 127k (I spat my coffee out when I read it), that's some serious HPI in the pipeline.

It's not really their job to report facts, it their aim to get a bigger share of the ratings. I can remember reading Market Wizards, you would be shocked to learn how many of the worlds best traders do not even watch the news. some even go out of their way to avoid it!

Wouldn't this depend s on whether or not a person was cunning enough to make an effort to repay the debt early (pending small print)? Providing exit charges aren't bad I could reckon the savvy could make good ue of this.

I agree with oracle, not a triple top. I think gold my have another bash at $730, in fact is there a hint of a sysmetrical triangle forming there? I'm not sure if there is and it's broken out. If that's true it could have a target of about $1,000. Also look at the dollar situation and you would be forgiven for thinking gold is going up. p.s. I have problems with chart patterns, DYOR!

Looks more like a new high on a trendline to me. Although, the rate rise may dampen demand going ahead (but more rises aren't certain at the moment though).

Pretty solid stuff, real move upwards in the last quarter. HBOS should be out soon and ODPM (whatever they call themselves) should be out soon too.

Take over rumours regarding SL. Not sure if they will come to fruition though...

No. As Mutley says the trend is up. The FTSE has made a higher high, which invalidates the triple top idea for now.

Yes, busy dreaming up ideas to tax the population into oblivion. Wonder what next week's idea will be?

It depends, you don't really have to manufacture anything but you have to produce something like a service that you can export. Unfortunately that's going east and Blair and co think that having no manufacturing base or a service economy migrating east is a good thing. Oil running out and students ditching science, maths and engineering...uh oh...can't stop....I'm turning back into a bear...

Imiweb (owned by HBOS) are decent and have OK trading fees (flat £10) although I don't really trade stocks much these days. Don't ignore managed funds because there's a quite a few good 'uns out there.

Yep. Unfortunately the Tories are looking at the same thing, there's no stopping the government encroaching on our lifes now. If HPI doesn't want to make you emmigrate then this cr*p will. There are too many people working in government, they must start downsizing or we'll all end up taxed to oblivion.

How long before the rest of the banks follow suit. HBOS must be fairly confident that there is demand for this sort of product.

But 2.3% is still solid growth. Besides isn't that the intention of a rate hike, to trim growth?

Again, if you are renting does this make you immune? No, renters still have to pay tax and they will also be getting shafted.

I wouldn't say it's that bad. From an employers pointof view, it's hard to sort the good from the bad. From a grads point of view, they have to make sure that they stand out. I think this is a common problem faced in IT at the moment, lots of potential staff but how many of them are worth taking on?

Have you ever seen those day time TV ads of the binman, "Do you find your job unrewarding? Why not train up in IT".