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

Good call cynic!

thanks guys! ...... perhaps that prize ass scottinvestor should take note occasionally! ..... just for info ..... Dow long still open but trailing stop now raised to 13275; FTSE long doubled early this morning at 6427.5 ..... shall be monitoring both very closely as it is far from impossible that either market could boil over and i have no intention of allowing those profits to fritter away

HSBC meant to be updating today which could have an impact if monstrous

DOW futures only +19 at present.
Might see some profit taking this p.m., imo.

if so, my stop will cut in, but that's fine by me

Dow now closed, and also half of FTSE

Yes, I thought you might. Am not confident that this afternoon is going to be as good as the last 24 hours, so also sold stock I bought yesterday.

always hard to know after such a surge ..... actually bought into BRR this morning and bought back HAWK

DOW now -40 !!! Awaiting inflation report from the U.S.

back in long Dow at 13349 ...... care not that previous position was closed out at 13275 as Dow could have gone anywhere after the figures just announced .... as it is, they are in line with expectations at worst, so (today's) market looks promising again

Amazing turnaround on the FTSE, but DOW still -3.
Happy with my profit today & will just watch now until tomorrow.

havin g taken my large profit in Dow and reasonable one in 1/2 FTSE this morning, my new positions are both adequately in the money .....

harry ..... watch carefully as Wall Street opens in a few minutes to see the reaction ..... not really predictable, but you may want to reopen

Just closed my first trade on FTSE, went long at 6350 and made a modest 20 point gain. Unfortunately I was transfixed to the screen and didn't get back to tiling my bathroom, may have to treat the other half to a slap meal somewhere.

Next time will walk away with my stops and limits in place, not a healthy occupation watching the screen for to long.

DOW futures currently -55, so not looking too healthy for this afternoon.
However, just seen an article which suggests Gold will reach $1000 an ounce in 2008, so investment in mining stocks still looks to be a reasonable medium term bet.

all pretty bleak all round once more ...... thank goodness for my short in NRK!

Memo to self - never leave a 'long' position open and go to a client meeting when the market is clearly in a downswing !

Pillock !

....and relaaax, thats better.


Sorry guys, just getting something off my chest.

what a vile day from weather to Wall Street ...... have taken money off the table, some to bank profits (50% of IEC + 20% of SCHE) and others to swallow losses (RTN) ....... only joy was NRK continuing to tumble and a late short of SOLA which is now in the money

Wonder how many billions the Fed will inject into the system today. Their printing presses must be running full tilt!

why any? ...... my guess is that Fed will not be reducing rates any more any time soon ...... if they do, the risk of unacceptably higher inflation and even weaker $ will do more harm than good.

on the other hand, it looks likely that BoE will reduce rates, probably just before Christmas ..... EU Central Bank seems rather more hard-nosed

Looks like the DOW 13000 level may be tested again. If it holds, there should be a nice bounce up again but I have got to admit that this is investing by the seat of your pants. Can't decide if today was mainly profit taking or something more fundamental.