Treasurer

Peter Costello, the Australian treasurer put out another warning yesterday at a Committee for Economic and Development of Australia lunch in Sydney. Costello said that "Those investing in resources stocks could end up being burnt, like those who invested heavily during the global information technology boom in the late 1990s. When you get into the middle of these booms - the property boom, the tech boom, the resource boom - the tendency is always to think it will last forever, but none of them do. This boom, like all booms, will come to an end. If you put all your eggs into resource companies you will be in as bad a situation in a couple of years' time as people who put all their eggs in the tech basket." Maybe he was trying to protect mum and dad investors hyped about the booming resources market and the spectacular returns being achieved in the market at the moment. Of course this is sound advice for the general public. But for people conducting share trading like us - this advice should not concern you too much. If you have proper risk management strategies in your stock trading plan then you should not worry too much about this downturn. In fact you should be looking forward to shorting opportunities.

Like all booms - they all must come to an end. And the Australian Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has warned that the boom will not last. "This won't last forever; it never does," Mr Costello told ABC radio. Australia's economy has recently been riding on high worldwide oil, mineral and commodity prices.

Treasurer Peter Costello has accepted reality and cut $6.5 billion from the Federal Government's 51 per cent stake in Telstra. Releasing the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, Mr Costello said this year's slump in Telstra's share price made it necessary to include a more realistic estimate of the proceeds of the sale of the government's 6 billion shares.

With the shares valued at $5.25 in the May budget, Mr Costello said Treasury had based its new price estimate on the 90-day average price of Telstra up to December 8, which worked out at $4.13 a share.