Speaking for myself it's a pity it's only pretend money. Then again who'd want to risk $100,000 on a four-week punt?

On average it would have shrunk to $99,227 after a wild week of market moves, all prompted by events offshore.

The market is in a tizz over the apparently deteriorating global economy, witness the shock slump in industrial production in Germany, hitherto Europe's economic engine.

Then there are the trimmed-down forecasts from the International Monetary Fund which, though less optimistic than before, still show an economic improvement next year.

Worse, it said sharemarkets might be getting a bit "frothy".

Although this was momentarily forgotten the next day when the minutes of the US Federal Reserve were unexpectedly dovish, Wall Street finished the week a lot less frothy.

The Fed must have known what the fund was going to say because it warned US growth "might be slower if foreign economic growth came in weaker than expected".

It's also worried about the impact on the US economy of the strengthening greenback.

All this, the market quickly realised, put paid to any imminent rise in interest rates which the Fed said wouldn't happen for a "considerable time". Sound familiar? Shades of our own Reserve Bank's comment about a "period of stability".

The race's best stock after week one is Pancontinental Oil & Gas which incurred a please explain from the ASX for its efforts even though it's still only worth 4¢ a share.

It replied that there was keen interest in its Kenyan prospect "due to the recent success of the Sunbird-1 well oil and gas discovery", which in fact dates back to June.

David Potts