rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

ftse really trying had to hit 5900 level, but keeps bouncing off at moment, it's proving to be resistance this morning. It needs to pause for breath, 5860 would be nice.

Not so sure banks/financials has seen anywhere near the bottom yet, but only going on some articles i read, that i happen to agree with, many many billions to be written off yet, could last for quite some time yet...

Big Ted------I agree, but I think the big 4/5 UK banks will have limited exposure, if it turns out not to be the case then the FTSE will imo head towards the 5200 mark in coming months.
2517

closed short for B/E, may try later at 5915.

With barc reporting tomorrow and lloy friday, we haven't long to wait, would think UK banks will want to get any write offs out of the way now. I don't think the write offs will be as high as US banks have been forecasting.

Should have a clearer picture tomorrow.

Presidents day in the states so public holiday.... Sentiment on long rising all the same.

Well Wall St. is going to open up, bid question is will it stay there?

for that reasson, shall stay on sidelines for now

Debating doing the same, GBP/JPY short doing well so might just leave me Wall St. rolling bet open. Also the FED news of last week I still think could offset the days results, I have the feeling a quick slide is coming and don't want to miss it..... Tender hooks for anyone playing from the off.

Wal-Mart figures pretty encouraging .... would certainly not short Dow at this juncture.

GPP/JPY is certainly an interesting shorting idea, with ultimate target of 190

Thats it Cynic, 190 long term play. 21028 started with stop loss at 24000. Should be nice.... Loving both JPY/GBP & Wall St. open positions at the moment. Again have taken the long run, 10500 my target on Wall St. Stop loss currently at a high 12800 but will adjust as it falls away as will do with the Yen. Swiss Frank looking very interesting, next carry trade maybe??..!! Only playing with small stakes at the moment but as cover runs into profit the plan is to increase stakes whilst bringing stop losses down.. Nothing else currently open on my spread betting account but always looking for fresh ideas.

12300 showing its support again.... Some nice earners tonight for the 30 minute trader..!!

John, i do presume (hope) you were long on gold before today???

I'm surprised that the oil Stocks (producers mainly) are not rocketing today and the gold producers are not moving much either!

but XTA is!

by the way, and will post there in a mo, AL. looks like an interesting but quite brave long punt ...... sp has fallen off a cliff, which of course does not mean that it has yet hit the bottom ..... however, it would not be surprising to see the bears coming in to take their profits and/or a predator may conclude that at this level (455/460), the company is worth absorbing

From the excellent Signalwatch website this morning:
"The Daily and 60 Minute Charts show the Dow continues to build out the six-week triangle pattern that has formed at overall lows. As we mentioned before, this pattern could spark a mega breakout move soon, one that moves the market about 1,285 points."
It doesn't suggest whether this is going to be up or down, but assuming the trend is continuing......................! Any opinions on this matter very welcome.

if signalwatch knew, the guys would have retired many moons ago ..... probability is still upwards ..... agree re 12250 being a support and 12200 being important for stop losses ...... 12000 much more important overall

Al. seems to generally overshoot in both directions as aggressively traded for its volatility. Opened 100 points down this morning which seemed a little excessive considering the results seemed to be consistent with revised expectations and as you say a bid possibility makes it a risky short at this level.

Agree, i like signalwatch, HOWEVER, they are using charts, which is no substitute for newsflow, couple of weeks ago their triangle indicated to watch for breakout below 12200, it went below down to 12110, but came all the way back, so no breakout, i will take what they say with a pinch of salt form now on...

Wouldn't touch AL. as with the rest of the banking sector, playing here is pure speculation in my mind.

Big Ted - Unfortunatly I've been keeping away from gold spreads, only reason for this is time and the amount of researching indicies and currency. Theres alot of changes happening at the moment and shifts in wealth. I don't believe this has been fully flushed through in the strength of local currencies. Back to gold though, I wouldn't be too eager to throw a short on it just yet, remember there is a historic ratio between gold and oil 9:1 I believe and oil isn't showing any signs of weakness at the moment, this strength in oil will keep gold prices high, I'd prefer to short only when I see weakness in gold/oil as a pair. On the equity side however I do hold Serabi Mining which although progress has been slow in recent I have my fingers crossed for '08. As always DYOR.

Thanks Harry for pointing me in direction of signalwatch, had heard so much about this triangle, but couldn't find it on grapth. Was looking too far back, didn't realise it started in January. As to direction of break out it comes down individual instinct, gut feeling whatever you want to call it. I feel we are in a general bear market with corrective rallies along the way, so still expect ftse to try and breach the 6000 level, before falling back again.