Johno, what you are failing to understand is that the markets tanked mainly because of the results of Bank of Scotlands losses, pricing in speculated similar future losses of the financial sector in general i.e the market being forward looking has speculated NOW that banks will have further write downs etc. If the results aren't as bad as BoS (lets hope to god they are not) then the market won't tank because it's been priced in already. It may even shrug off the news because it's been "priced in". The markets won't tank everytime a bank announces losses from here on. IMO