Get the timing right and you make a bundle. Be a couple of hours early and, well, you lose a bundle.

Take what happened to me last week. I bought into the Dow at its 200-day moving average (12,850) and Research in Motion at its 50day average (around $200). Next morning, the market begins tanking (yet again). The Dow goes below 12,700 and I'm out. Research in Motion slips below $190 and I say farewell. Two quick losses, bye-bye 2,300. Fantastic.

My only consolation is my Apple short. It's a small position, as I'd already taken some pro"ts, but the speed of its descent . . . from $120 to $111 in one day . . . is at least providing a little cheer.

What happens next? Reversal time. After losing 300 points on an intra-day basis, the Dow turns around, making up all of its losses in the last hour of trade. Next morning, the Fed sends all of Wall Street into rapture by announcing a cut in the discount interest rate. The market opens up almost 300 points . . . a 600-point turnaround just hours after I get stopped out . . . as the shorts run for their lives. Sickening?

Just a bit.

After opening near $122 . . . an $11 jump in less than a day, for heaven's sake . . . Apple hits my stop and I bid a bitter goodbye (read: curses galore).

Research in Motion (RIMM), though, just takes the biscuit. My reasons for buying the stock were twofold. You had an up-trending stock coming down to touch its 50day average for the "rst time in months. Secondly, you had a 3:1 stock split coming within days.

Ef"cient Market theorists will dismiss the latter as a super"cial and cosmetic exercise. I completely agree, but that doesn't stop traders from jumping in on account of it.

Anyway, RIMM hits my stop, goes down a few dollars more and then joins the market party. Within a day, it's trading at $210. Upbeat remarks from Goldman Sachs and a number of other broker drive the stock on.

Two days later and all-time highs are hit as stunned shorts run for the hills and momentum traders and stock split enthusiasts jump on board.

On Wednesday, it trades near a split-adjusted price of $84 . . . or, to use last week's price, above $250, 25% above the price I bought at.

Instead of losing 1,300, I could have been looking at a 5,000 profit.

Would I have held on or would I have jumped out at break-even, as I am wont to do when a stock buy that has gone wrong rebounds back in my direction? I'd have held on. Sure, I'd have taken some pro"ts along the way but the Fed announcement had the shorts in such a panic, it would have been silly to get out.

All this is academic, of course, but it really did churn my stomach. I could have bought back into the Dow and RIMM as the turnaround gathered force, but I was too chicken.

In hindsight, it's fascinating to see how the price indicated something was up. The day prior to the Fed announcement had seen rumours that a cut was on the way. I didn't pay much heed, but clearly some people knew what was coming. A 250-point jump in the last 30 minutes of trade, just hours before a market-moving announcement? A coincidence?

Yeah, right.

Anyway, traders are now in more optimistic territory than they were just a week ago. They're banking on a rate cut in September. Not everyone agrees with such a notion. The current sub-prime mess has been the product of some daft bets from greedy and myopic bankers who gave out loans to people with lousy credit histories.

Those who "made bad credit decisions must be allowed to pay the price, and only by paying dearly can lessons truly be learned", as one observer put it. Or, as blogger and money manager Barry Ritholtz more eloquently writes, the Fed should not give in to "the whining and pleading and crying and begging and beseeching and howling and weeping of the anti-free market selfcry baby commies currently residing in positions of influence on Wall Street and the media".

Talking of whining and pleading and the likes, those of you who haven't seen CNBC's Jim Cramer's theatrical meltdown on TV should check it out. In it, Cramer implores the Fed to rescue the poor sods on Wall Street and really loses the run of himself. Type in 'Cramer rant' on Youtube and squirm as Wall Street's greatest clown makes an even bigger idiot of himself than usual.

Cramer was predictably exultant last week, announcing that the Dow was headed up to 14,500 (like everything he says, I'd take that with a grain of salt). Some found his mood swing nauseating. Me, I'm neither an economist or a theologian. You won't "nd this impoverished monkey agonising over 'moral hazard' or the likes.

Returning to the markets, things really calmed down this week. It's almost been boring. A return to volatility is likely, however. At the moment, the shorts are getting squeezed and the bulls are laughing.

I'm guessing that the squeeze will continue a little longer. Any evidence of the sub-prime mess spilling over into the broader economy would see that change pretty quickly, however, likely triggering a retest of last week's lows. My guess is that the bulls would survive it . . . I don't think we're looking at Armageddon. Valuations aren't too bad and world bankers have shown they're up to the task.

All that is just idle speculation though. Apart from a couple of mediocre day trades, I haven't done a thing since Mr Market slapped me around the place. Hopefully, he'll cut me some slack next week.

Weekly gain/loss: . . . 2,700
Overall balance: 50,400