Those of you who have been following Guido’s trading on the right will have seen it jump substantially last week. Guido was short Dow and FTSE futures which collapsed after the auto-bailout deal in Washington failed midweek, closed all the positions before the yanks could cobble together some compromise. Booked profits for the trading for the last three months are 97% – Mrs Fawkes hinted that perhaps going back to full-time trading might be more lucrative than blogging. Perhaps, however this was performance off a small amount of capital, the Value-at-Risk was sometimes leveraged 20 times, it was pure risk money and Guido got lucky.

Basically the trades were shorting the pound versus the euro, selling rallies in the Dow and FTSE, quickly covering after significant drops. Somehow Guido managed to lose money twice trading from the long side on Gold futures just before retracements rather than just buying and holding. Sir Michael White sneered at Guido for recommending buying gold as we shift towards Mugabonomics and the Bank of England sets the printing presses rolling. Gold is the safest refuge and the cost of carry with interest rates tending towards zero is ever more favourable to passive holders of the metal.

Sterling investors who bought gold at the beginning of the year have seen it rise 28% from £424 to £544 an ounce. If in 2009 we see “quantitative easing” (printing money), holding gold will be insurance as much as an investment. If you have apocalyptic fears, holding physical gold coins is reassuring.

Won’t be keeping a diary of trades on the blog next year, because this is a politics blog and some (not all) readers find it boring and/or self indulgent. Not bothered about being self indulgent (it is a personal blog) but being boring won’t do.