Ann: First quarter 2013 operations review , page-11

Whatever happened to that optimistic time back in mid 2009 when everyone was seeing the world through rose coloured glasses? Those were the days, weren't they... The Global Financial Crisis was a few weeks behind us, no one was frightened anymore, there were no worries about a US or European recovery, everyone thought China would have buoyant foreign markets to sell their goods into and we were all eagerly looking foward to a wonderful and bright economic future...

Ahh yes, those were the days - better times indeed. Copper was selling at nearly half its price today and iron ore was landing in China at around 63 dollars a ton. And BHP was heading towards a very handsome $40 per share and RIO was at $71.

You know, when we have scared ourselves so shitless about future commodity pricing that it affects entire sectors of the stock market in such a negative way as we have seen over the past few months, it pays to take a little walk through history - even recent history. So you can forget the bloody charts, forget fundamentals. In the share market, it's perceptions and sentiment that count. Nothing else bloody matters.