We waited for the FED decision before writing the weekly comment. There is a reason. Greenspan said while promoting his book last week that there is at least a 33% chance of recession. This is not good news coming from the former FED Governor. He also said that he came to the conclusion that bubbles are ineviatble because human beings cannot learn. Finally the political statement that the Iraq war is about oil just when it breached 80 usd a barril.

So we were curious about how the market would react. The decision to have a full 50 basis points off the fed fund rates gave a huge stimulus to the market made the dollar plunge and send gold to new highs. It looks the FED had to choose between the economy and the dollar and made the choice of the economy. Meanwhile in England Northern Rock the fifth largest mortgage lender suffer massive withdrawls with British depositors queuing outside branches. Could this be a sign that the public has beginning to loose faith in the bank system?

The participants of the World TopInvestor competition in the Top10 continue to surf the volatility of the market. Mr. Doleschall with his account designed specifically for the extraordinary market conditions we have been experiencing remains on top with 655%, followed by fellow contry man Tamás Czajner. Mr Doleschall has another account in 4th place and gains of 176% making a splash with his high percentage trading. Portuguese Jorge Manuel Gerivaz is betting on the market going down, showing a strong opinion over the future of the economy. Being always very diversified in his portfolio he is now short most financials.