It seems that the carnage on the stockmarket just won’t stop. The Iseq has sunk below the 7,000 mark. Great news for Robbie Kelleher, head of Research at Davy stockbrokers. He is not alone in making a monkey of himself on the markets.

A few months ago I foolishly boasted in print that I had sold Vodafone shares at £1.47 and was holding onto BofI as they soared all the way up to €18.65. The switch was showing a healthy profit at the time. Hubris. Today Vodafone stands at stg£1.92 while Bank of Ireland have nearly halved at below €10.00.

I even wanted to buy Northern Rock at stg£1.78. Only my ultra-bossy spouse stopped me. They now stand at stg£1.32. Wrong on all three counts.

So, cheer up Robbie. I am a lot poorer than I was. And I was not even following your recommendations.