October, as Ive said a few times, is usually a good month for shares. Not always as good a month as November (Frankfurt: A0Z24E - news) or December, but there is a surge of Autumn energy at work not only in the share world but in most aspects of life.

We seem to shrug off a summer apathy and get down to the serious business of the equivalent of what squirrels do at this time of the year. Trying to accumulate some more nuts, or in human terms, more money.

I expect shares to fire up perhaps even more than usual this Autumn. Theyve already made good progress during the normally moribund months of summer, and you might think that they could run out of steam. Well, my gut feeling is that shares will rise quite a bit till the usual hangover in January.

But what shares will rise faster than the others? Or at least will run less risk of falling than most companies around them? Well, oil still looks a reasonable choice. The price of crude has kept rising. Thats because the world is coming out of recession, even if the UK has yet to get going. Its expected that the demand for more fuel and oil based materials will keep on going, as the big manufacturers, and everyone else, really, starts to gather in the orders again.

Big stores often see a rise in share values at this time of year. This is because the shops fill up and everyone gathers the impression that shops are doing really, really well. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the shops fill up because people like window shopping in the magical displays of Christmas. They are not necessarily buying anything. And I should think the present list will be cut as fast as government services this time round.

Still we can sometimes make a bit of bread out of expectations, even if theyre not supported by fact. My usual policy is to buy chain store shares about now and sell just before the 25th December. Ive made goodly sums of cash by this policy before but as far as this difficult year goes who knows? Yes, Ill try the strategy again but I wont be too surprised if it doesnt work. Rock on.