“Sell everything!” says Royal Bank of Scotland amid crashing stock prices, and as oil heads toward $10 per barrel

Always fancied a performance car or large SUV with an eight cylinder engine?

This year could be the year of the gas guzzler even in the eyes of those with the most frugal and conservative budgeting skills, as major British bank Standard Chartered has issued a caution that the price of oil could tumble to as little as $10 per barrel.

Aside from the running costs of luxury cars now becoming far less expensive than would have been the case even two years ago, shrewd investors may well see very little point in saving money on luxury items to invest in commodities and stocks if the prices continue to head downwards so rapidly.

As Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered – all large, London-based institutions which between them handle a vast percentage of interbank electronic trading across FX and commodities, increasingly turn their attentions toward Hong Kong and Singapore and away from the financial centers of London’s Square Mile and Canary Wharf, corporate sentiment among them appears to be aligned.

Last week, £85 billion was wiped from the FTSE 100 index, which has widely been stated to have been the very worst start to a new year on world markets in the entire history of the financial system.

Royal Bank of Scotland has issued advice to its clients which points out the gravity of the situation

“Danger is lurking out there for every investor. The downside is crystallizing. Watch out. Sell everything” – Royal Bank of Scotland

The warning continued “In a crowded hall, exit doors are small. Risks are high. This looks very much like 2008.”

As the entire non-bank electronic trading business begins to go multi=asset, equities and commodities have become the subject of caution by bank executives.

RBS analyst Andrew Roberts stated in a report “Equities have become very dangerous. Watch out. Sell mostly everything… The game is up. The world is in trouble.”