I went off into the centre of London yesterday to meet the chap who's masterminding the shoot for the cover of the next book. I used to work in Soho and it was a reminder to me how gruesome it is to actually have to work in the city.

Packed, sweaty and smelly tube trains (squeeze in room only even at 9.30pm). And the usual collection of beggars, smackheads etc.

Anyway met the designer for a drink and we spent quite a while discussing some ideas. As the book is going to be stocked by the major retailers the cover has to stand out!

He told me an interesting story about a certain celebrity's book cover he had designed. The cover shoot was supposed to last two days and ended up going on for 2 weeks. She was really difficult and moaned all the way through it.

When it came to the final cover she insisted on everything being airbrushed so not a wrinkle remained. And on having longer legs - oh and slimmer arms and a smaller waist. All done by the magic of photoshop!

I'd love to tell you who the celebrity is but obviously I can't! Still a fascinating glimpse into the world of book covers!
We're doing the "shoot" in a couple of weeks. Oh, the heady glamour of it all! I'll let you know how it goes.

I then did a spot of late night shopping and had a walk around Selfridges having my dinner in the food hall which is stuffed with tempting goodies. It's quite a relaxing time to do shopping.

There appeared to be quite a few City boys out and about drowning their market fall sorrows and I could hear some moaning about the Dow being down a lot again. I got the tube home. Yuk!!

Always a good time to sneak out bad news just as politicians disappear off on their outrageously long holidays .. see you near Xmas guys!

Each one of us pays £5,000 to subsidise superb pensions for civil servants. The figure was sneaked out in obscure documents yesterday. Three million were allowed to keep the right to retire at 60 while for the rest of us it's 67.

Remember £50 billion was stolen from our pensions following the scrapping of dividend credits. Hey, we do get it! Aren't you getting fed up with seeing newsreaders reading the news standing in water? And I'm sick of the rain shown behind the newsreaders on Sky News.. Yes, we understand it's been raining. You don't have to shove it down our throats!

Summer's on the way at last .. it starts officially next week. Get ready to get your kit off. Lads with beer bellies though, please keep your shirts on!

Julie writes: Hope you can help with a [friendly] marital dispute ? Which UK company has the highest share certificate value ?

Himself says Arsenal (well he would wouldn't he as a lifelong supporter) and I disagree !!

Hi Julie - I had no idea. Interesting question. Unfortunately, no straight-forward answer. The highest priced share on the LSE is Porsche (price: £881).

But Arsenal isn't listed on the LSE, instead it has a quote on PLUS Markets (where its price is £8,100). So, it's share certificate would indeed be very high.

So, it then gets complicated: do you mean a "listed company" (Arsenal is not listed on the LSE, but is on PLUS).

If you don't mean "listed" then there could be any number of private companies with just, say, 2 or 3 shares, each of which is worth millions.

So, I would say that they are both right!

Frank writes: Hi Robbie, Just heard (02:00 news) that a surge of water is moving down the Thames - hope it doesn't meet an incoming tide near you & that if it does, you aren't on the ground floor !!

Hi Frank, yes on the ground floor.. but I think being down as far as Fulham we should be ok. Still toddler Christopher would enjoy it. I'll nip out and buy a plastic boat so we can stay afloat...

Jim writes: I happened to be flicking through the channels today and came across QVC. They had an Xmas shop on and nearly all of it was sold out, it just keeps on getting earlier.

Jim thanks - bet you bought a few items - eh!?

There's only one word that can possibly describe this week's market: Arrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! And it doesn't matter whether you've been in the markets ten weeks or ten years (like me) super volatile conditions like this are a complete nightmare as fear battles greed.

Should you sell everything? (Fear) But then the markets could come back! (Greed). As readers know I cannot forecast the future but I simply try and weigh up the risks and protect my capital.

The shorts and the FTSE short (Profit nearly £4,000) and some FTSE put covered warrants taken out recently are all insurance policies that are paying out right now and to a certain extent have mitigated some (but not all) losses on the longs.

So I have tried to stay cool. It's hard to activate stop losses when conditions are like this because 30 seconds after selling the stock could bounce back.

Anyway here are trades made - the first lot are sells, taking losses because of fear and because of stops, and the second lot are buys! These were made in the hope the shares have gone too far down and look a good buy.

However of course should the market continue downwards I would exit sharpish. I'm going to make no other comments on them as it would take all day. It's already taken me bloody ages but it's all about right I think.

SELLS: Air Partner at 1170 (27th) Loss £720.

Dyson at 270 (27th) Loss £228.

N. Investors at 225.7 (26th) Loss £108.

Chime 53.65 (26th) Profit £445 (49p pos) Profit £615 (pos 45) tot profit £1,060.

Boot (27th) (half) 257 Loss £78 (pos 260.8).

Mitie (27th) 253 Profit £154 (SB 254 profit £60).

Dragon (half) 219.79 (27th) Profit on position 210.6 £202 SB 221 Profit £160 (other position remains).

BUYS: Xchanging (XCH) 2,000 at 254.45 (27th) target 285 stop 245.

RM 2,000 at 198.65 (27th) target 220 stop 190.

NCC 2,000 at 380 (26th) target 420.

New short: Provident Financial (PFG) £15pp at 925 (26th) tgt 850 stop 955

And finally I took profits in the Paragon short today at 438 to bank a handy £910. It was a lovely short but I've had nearly 100 points out of it and it would seem greedy to expect any more!

Bizarely all that action banks a profit of £1,412 for the site. I'm hardly celebrating, if I'd sold that lot last week. Elsewhere the oils have held up well though Oilexco is on a yellow card. Wellstream in particular has held very well and looks good today. BH Macro has been a real star during the selloff and is actually up!

Carphone Warehouse has gone up nicely since results. Foseco also has been pretty solid during the melee. And lucky for my ISA portfolio a number have been pretty much unscathed including MTL INstruments, Carclo and Alterian.

Looks like they stayed below the radar. Renold has gone up a tad. Still huge profits in long-termers Charter and Hunting despite the falls.

Shortwise obviously it's been excellent - my FTSE short is well in profit (nearly £4,000 up) as are shorts in M and S, Easyjet and in particular Informa (more than £2,000 profit there) has gone down enough to make it a good short profit-maker. My covered warrants have soared in value. Think I got the most out of Paragon for now though.

So an unpleasant few days in which basically I have done the sensible thing and reduced stakes to keep cash on the sidelines and let things be stopped out. Also I don't have that many spreadbet positions open except shorts because when they go wrong.. they go wrong!

I wish all of you battling with the conditions well. If it is any consolation the battles you may be doing now will really see you in good stead in the future. These kinds of battles always teach me a new lesson and the more lessons one learns the better the future of one's trading. It's going to be a roller-coaster ride...