With the stock market down almost four per cent in a week, there must be some real bargains out there. Or maybe not.
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It could be the beginning of a sudden loss of confidence - or maybe just the trigger to spark a wave of automated selling by the algorithms running on computers in finance houses around the country.
The last time that happened was at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020. The market - as measured by the All Ordinaries Index - fell 33pc in a month.
It took more than a year for it to recover.
It is easy to be pessimistic. There's an escalating war in the Middle East, the likely failure of the US and Europe to prevent the takeover of the Ukraine, and a presidential election in the US where neither of the two old men in the running is likely to inspire much confidence.
The good news is that the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that the threat of El Nino has evaporated.
The bad news is that weather forecasting seems to be getting harder. Expect more wild swings in the cattle market as farmers stampede from destocking to restocking and back again.
Brave souls will be tempted to buy on the dip. But the Punter has already done that, doubling up on the likes of Bio-Gene Technology (ASX code BGT), Neurizer (NRZ), Wide Open Agriculture (WOA), Centrex (CXM), Graincorp (GNC) and Beston Global Foods (BFC).
He has precious little cash left.
He is tempted to sell his remaining Elders (ELD) shares, to lock in a reasonable profit. The big boys in the business, like Macquarie, Citi, UBS, Bell Potter and others, have price targets for ELD ranging from $9.10 to $7.50, which is not much help.
The Punter paid $5.93 a year ago.
At the time of writing ELD were selling for $8.52, but he has decided to sit on his hands for another week.
- The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies featured in this column.
