Oh, what japes! And that was only the first week back at work this year! But did we actually learn anything useful from the first five days of trading? Are there any nuggets we can cling on to that provide any useful money-making opportunities or, at least, stop us "doing our conkers"?
Possibly. But has anyone come out of week one with any credit or stood out as a visionary amid all the chaos? Not that I can see.
The chartists, of course, were having a field day, spouting a high degree of jibber-jabber -- sorry I meant technical analysis -- that confirmed that we are almost certainly doomed to a negative market performance in 2016. If I hear one more technical analyst telling me about the importance of the first day and first week of trading for the full year's move, I think I'm going to grab their candlestick and put it somewhere pretty uncomfortable. It just makes no sense to write off the rest of the year on such flimsy evidence.