Tough market

Bloody hell it is a tough market at the moment. I'm personally getting slaughtered with whatever strategy I employ, except good old fashioned "buy and hold".... maybe there is a lesson in that?

Anyways there is not a lot that looks particularly exciting to me at the moment - markets have continued to rally into the new year but there is still pain being felt in the US consumer with insolvencies / bankruptcies still high.

One stock which appears to have gotten a lot of coverage today in the press - (pump and dump?!?) is local coal producer Exxaro. In the South African context it is obviously a sensible play as they are going to be the major supplier of coal to Eskom when it starts to ramp up its production levels and expansion program.

Seems like a far cheaper play (on historical earnings) than something like Anglo American and far more targeted in terms of specific resource.

One thing which did jump out at me today - and I saw it was covered on the Miningmx website - is a report out of Stratfor. The research firm has its detractors and I have called them war-mongerers before - but they certainly do raise a couple of interesting points.

1. Russia continuing to spread its influence into neighbouring states
2. China going to continue reckless lending practices to sustain its growth
3. A "cold war" of sorts between Angola and South Africa
4. A crisis in Iran is now inevitable and all the big players are jockeying for positions

I don't want to be the "Chicken little" out there but 1 and 4 worry me quite a lot. I am just not sure what the fallout is and how to tackle it.

On my personal account I've been moving quite quickly into cash. I have kept my preference share portfolio but that's about it.