When the market began to give up the gains of early January my trader pal said that it wasn't a bad thing, we needed a bit of profit-taking. (Profit-taking, a rare two words these days.)

After a week of falls he was getting more anxious. And now, having seen the worst losing streak in history, he's worrying about his own job.

There's only so much pummelling a portfolio can take before the talk turns to cost-cutting. At this point, pacifist though he is, my friend is wondering about the possibility of a "quick war" in Iraq.

The market is scared because it cannot predict how a war would progress and it's particularly worried about the effect that a conflict might have on the US economy (although in reality that effect should be relatively short-lived). But even a short war won't be cheap.

A short, sharp conflict would mean that investors could concentrate on the longer-term future - what they're always being advised to do - instead of being obsessed with what might happen tomorrow.

A drawn-out war would be a disaster in human, financial and economic terms and would leave the business climate in even worse disarray than it is already, most especially because of the pressure it would put on oil prices.

But at the moment it is the uncertainty that's destroying the markets. The strange thing is that many people are "surprised" at the volume of recent selling.

Yet how could it be any other way? Nobody that I speak to has one positive thing to say about the market and its immediate prospects. In fact many don't see any positives now for a year or two (mind you, these are mainly the people predicting a sharp recovery in 2001) and so, under those circumstances, why would you stay invested?

If they're all feeling the same way the only thing to do is sell, and if no one wants to buy, then those prices will keep on falling.

More and more fund management companies are sending valuations to their clients which have slashed the value of their holdings.

More and more fund managers are coming under pressure to deliver something to investors. But it's almost impossible to deliver anything. Although they like to think of themselves as magicians, they're not.

I received a brochure in the post the other day about a new tracker fund. The idea of tracking the markets inexorably downwards is hardly appealing. And even funds talking about being able to ride out the bad times and produce returns for investors despite falling markets are failing miserably.

There was a report last week that the Eifuku Master Fund, a Japanese hedge fund, was about to close having lost its entire capital in a week. Hedge funds, as regular readers already know, sell themselves on their ability to generate returns regardless of market direction. LTC said the same thing before delivering a body-blow to its investors some years ago. So there'll be a few more people looking for jobs in the weeks ahead.

At the same time, studies continue to tell us that more than half of the people currently at work are unhappy in their jobs. A recent report from the US said there was a "statistically significant" link between the company's five-year return and employee satisfaction.

The happier the employees, the better the return - adjusted, I suppose for devastating market conditions. I guess as far as fund management is concerned there are a lot of miserable employees out there right now.

I know that seeing the value of a portfolio you're managing sink into the mire is just about the most soul-destroying thing that can happen. Not only that, it robs you of confidence so you're less likely to take opportunities in the future, in case they go wrong too.

And there you have it again - so much of our entire business culture is based on confidence that as soon as it begins to waver we're all struggling.

I've given up looking at the value of my own retirement fund because I don't want to get depressed about how many extra years I'll have to spend at the computer. But things are looking a bit better with the celebdaq fund (I mentioned it last week) which is up about 10 per cent.

Sadly, though, I've forgotten my password and so when I went on to switch from Beckham into Ms Dynamite I was left holding the footballer because I couldn't log on. The password thing has me driven demented.

Most internet sites require a login name and a password. I realise I should come up with a totally unique combination of both but even when I once thought I'd managed it - a totally random selection of letters which I knew I'd promptly forget but which I'd carefully written down - the message was that it was already taken.

A short time ago the banklink machine disagreed violently with me regarding my PIN number though I was utterly convinced I was keying in the right one.

It was only later I realised I was actually inputting the code to my house alarm. When I received a new credit card with another new PIN number I knew I'd have to change it to the same number as my laser card otherwise I'd forget it.

But by the time I'd made my way to the bank I'd forgotten the PIN number that had been sent with the card and couldn't use it anyway.

I wish they'd give up all this PIN number palaver and go straight to fingerprinting. Surely it can't be that difficult by now.

Anyway, I know I wrote the celebdaq password somewhere but I can't remember where and so I'll have to hope that Becks gets a bit of additional publicity this week to give the portfolio another push.

You don't need a password to log on to my new website at www.sheilaoflanagan.net .

Go ahead and sign the guestbook. I can look at it and pretend I'm working.