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

DP of IC still struggling to predict the future!
"I am standing by my forecast of further near-term gains for the DAX and FTSE. Neither is showing any sign of exhaustion yet, even though I will admit to having seen more vigorous uptrends in the past. I did not expect to be trading these indices from the long side in mid-July, given the experience of the last three years or so. However, my job is to follow the trend, and that is what I shall continue to do for now. I may add to my existing long position in the FTSE – entered Friday – with some exposure to the DAX today.

The DAX made it easily to my stated target of 8213 on Friday. Such pullbacks as have occurred have been very modest, which is a testament to the strength of the uptrend. I am still looking for an attack on 8344.9. On the fourhourly timeframe, the price remains somewhat overbought.

DAY: I’d buy a bounce from around the 21-hourly EMA (8215.7)

POSITION: I’d buy a bounce from around the 21-hourly EMA (8215.7)"

I love these people who post about entering a trade 'yesterday'!

DP from IC again:
"The net result of the wild swings yesterday is that the markets have not gone very far at all. The DAX and FTSE are hovering around levels where they’ve been for several days, while GBPUSD and EURUSD have merely retreated to some of their intraday moving averages. My preference would still be for taking long positions in the indices, rather than FX, as the trends remain clearer. Retail sentiment is mildly bearish on the UK index, and substantially so on the German market, from what I can tell. Naturally, this strengthens the near-term case for more gains.

Yesterday’s lurch downwards came close to knocking out my long trade. However, as long as the FTSE stays above its 55-fourhourly EMA, my bias will stay bullish. It has now essentially been chopping sideways for a whole week. I see this as a precursor as a burst upwards to 6620 and then 6718.

DAY: Stay long or buy another recovery through the 21-HOURLY EMA.

POSITION: Stay long."

Quite a candle on the FTSE!

sailors ready!

.

Shorting to 6520 where I guess we'll see next support

5 min FTSE.

Probably some market shenanigans volatility before the US figures @1:30?

Not convinced Skinny, I went short at 6599 as support for 6600+ fades, regardless of the US figures I think a 6520 test is in order, if the US figures are good then maybe we'll see support and if bad then maybe it'll give way. I see little point in trading market figures and news right now, FTSE is at an all time high and you could hardly say UK growth figures or even global figures were good.

Getting ahead of itself but short still looking good..

Agreed its been a no brainer since open - just watching atm.

BTW, according to my figures, closing high this year was 6840.27 on May 22nd, intraday high (same day) was 6875.62.

The previous 6 days closing figures were - 6686.06, 6693.55, 6687.80, 6723.06, 6755.63, 6803.87.


All time closing high of 6,930, reached on 30 December 1999.

i confess i cannot make head or tail of these markets and i need to take my own customary advice - if in doubt do nowt

i have had a play over the last week or so, and overall, it's almost certainly cost me ...... i currently have small long positions in both dow and ftse, and i'll just let them run

No doubt your figures are correct Skinny and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw a new all time high at some point this year being that savings account interest is so poor over bond/equity yield. At the moment though the market seams to be looking for support so my plan is to follow it until it levels off. 6520 then 6360 are my support areas as per the below.

Certainly some of my best performers have been boring yielders this year (as posted before) with some up @50% - which reinforces your comments above.

I've sold quite a few of my big yielders recently, LGEN, BEZ, Drax and others to secure the profits as in the case of LGEN bougt at some 50-60p a share. No doubt I'll repurchase when the markets have a lower spell.

+50 pts up on FTSE now, maybe time to set a stop loss.

I'm talking 'really boring' - the likes of PEW,RECI,SDV etc.

I still hold LGEN, RSA and my current sector favourite RSL.

Just had a look at PEW, up some 42% this year, maybe not so boring if you like to trade trusts.

FTSE 6554 position closed

FTSE may go back to 6564 and present another shorting opportunity. Above chart is FTSE 5minute BTW.

6538 short again