Pre Market Futures  12:20 am

FTSE +13

DAX +8

DOW -15

S&P -1.3

NASDAQ -1.5

News Headlines:

Double Witching Day is when Options and futures contracts expire on the same day. This happens on 4 times a year on the 3rd Friday of that month.  March, June, September, December. During a 30 minute period there cam be extreme volatility on the markets as can be seen on the chart to the right  for September 2002. This was made worse on this occasion when it was said a trader is accidentally bought 400 baskets of futures, worth 2.4 billion, twice.  He is believed to have thought his first transaction had not been completed, so put the order through again and then had to sell it, making a loss of up to 120mThis time March futures contract stood at 194,000 contracts at Wednesday's close well below the open interest of 203,000 two days before the expiration of the September futures contract.

Take care if you have previously set stops losses on any of your positions as the volatility could well trigger them!

In the U.S markets found it difficult to establish a direction with most eyes set on the opening shots of the Iraq war. By the end of the evening the DOW managed to finish with a gain of 21.15 points for its seventh straight day of gains. Over that time the index has risen more than 10 percent.

Wishing you all the best for the day ahead.    david@FTSEDOW.com       www.FTSEDOW.com