Writing in The Times (London) today, Anatole Kaletsky reminds us that “the financial hurricane season” is now upon us.

“Nearly all the greatest financial accidents — the Wall Street crashes of 1929 and 1987, Nixon’s closure of the Bretton Woods gold window in 1971, the Asian currency crisis of 1997, the Mexican and Russian defaults, the attack on the French franc in 1993, the sterling devaluations of 1949, 1976 and 1992 — have occurred between late August and October”.

On Wall Street buyers generally hold off until Hallowe’en, on October 31, while selling is automatic for various reasons: “…selling of equities is partly a passive phenomenon, since portfolios have to be liquidated when their owners die or cash retirement cheques or make insurance claims.

“These liquidations happen steadily through the year, regardless of seasons. Buying, on the other hand, requires conscious decisions and investors are less likely to make these when they and their brokers are away on holiday.”

So the next couple of months will be crucial for financial markets. Have yourself a safe financial hurricane season.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the usual lenders out there, or would like to lend yourself, Zopa may be for you.

Zopa is UK-based and is said to be the financial equivalent of eBay. It puts borrowers and lenders directly in touch with one another.

Zopa has a very good management pedigree, it was created by the team that setup Egg, an online bank associated with the Abbey.

Pamela Atherton of the Telegraph writes: “Zopa was launched in March 2005, and has approximately 90,000 members. Sixty-three per cent are borrowers and 37 per cent lenders, with about 50 per cent of active lenders having already added to their original lending outlay. Zopa is coy about providing specific lending figures but insists that millions of pounds have been transacted since the launch, involving thousands of lenders and borrowers, and that more than 5,000 new members are being signed up each month.”

Another string to yet another financial bow.