A long, hot summer of rage and bad temper

Along with the mayhem in the markets there’s aggro on the streets of London. It’s apparent that there is a lot of weak parenting about in the UK.

We’ve seen rioting in the UK before, Brixton in the 1980s and the like. Though the methods were repugnant, there were real issues then. Whereas now, the chavs are rioting for iPhones and branded trainers, FFS. I mean, what the hell are they going to tell their grandchildren in 20 years? “Well, son, yes, I remember the summer of rage in 2011. We were so pissed off and hard we stormed the Sony Warehouse for some TVs and then looted the iStore to big up the ‘hood with some badass flat screen TVs and gadget bling“?

This old lady puts it pretty well, though if you’re easily offended by bad language it’s probably not for you. She gives it straight, and curiously enough it seemed to work, at least for a few seconds.

On to more cheerful subjects, well, there’s been a lot of bad temper in the markets of late, with the FTSE diving to 4800 at one point. Shorting my company Sharesave shares has worked well for me. Yesterday I think I had the pleasure of seeing a loss on every single stock in my ISA apart from Merchant’s Trust who are still a comfortable way over par. The ISA as a whole is a shade under 5% down. So I added Tesco, apparently for less than Warren Buffett paid for it. If 3.61 is good enough for him it’s good enough for me, and at that price they almost scrape my minimum dividend target fo 4%.

I added another couple of shares in areas I didn’t have before, indeed this crash has done my diversification no end of good. It’s hard not to succumb to the temptation to add to some of what I have already, which have so far paid out reliably. I am seriously thinking of moving my cash ISA into my S&S ISA to get some more firepower in this hot summer. Buying income has got a lot cheaper all of a sudden.

Now of course this crash isn’t without reason, there’s an awful lot twisted badly out of shape with Western economies, the prospects of slow or no growth, the horrendous sovereign debt, the appalling mess that is the Euro, where they must either go forward in the United States of Europe or back into individual currency blocs.  There’s a hell of a lot to be scared of.

And for all the resurgence of today, I figure this bear market has still got a fair way to go down yet. Which is jsut as well, because I have some way to go. I aim to be fully invested into my ISA by the end of October, and the bears could give me the chance to save up enough to be able to do that by then

I’m all for a long hot summer of rage in the stock markets. In real life, however, I think we could do without any more. Hopefully the chavs have got their iPhones and running shoes and the Met will reclaim the streets.