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

6632.8 closed at 6618.5 +14.3, two bet remaining average 6582.0.

Note the gold chart, a bit more and I think I might start buying.

I did pay a dividend and also a small over night fee last night yes. £2.22 in the pound the divi worked out at, ok I'm going mad, thought there was another one due tonight so didn't want to leave too much overnight.

I know the feeling - in that made fall just before the close, I unintentionally closed the trading platform instead of changing tabs!

I'll get me coat!

I've crystalised 82 pts today profit, verses unrealised losses of 70 pts on the FTSE. Hopefully sailing will be a tad easier tomorrow.

LOL post 12673, I've done that a few times myself, and I've opened a Wall St bet when I wanted a DAX bet before... Oh well its all good fun.

market could be fun from 19:00 - but i'll be out for dinner, so will miss the likely whizz-bang

cynic more like a damp squib!

the amis will almost certainly over-react regardless - its innate

cynic there may be an attempt to create volatility but it should die down fairly quickly as we are now in the holiday season.

Tell that to whoevers been buying Facebook stock, plenty of volatility at the moment I think.

i just stick to trading dow at the moment ..... stupidly managed to burn myself with aapl a few months back

facebook would you like to see our holiday snaps?

??????? i don't do facebook anyway

Cynic, aapl again, one of my favourite stocks to short.. I'll say no more as the iphone 6 could well see me buying this one.

Hali - Not really, facebook closed above its IPO last night, how can you justify the sp, so I'm shorting and already in profit.

Short, good on you!

FTSE100, still short, 3 bets currently average 6598.2

my own inclination is to BUY FTSE and to a lesser extent, DOW
i am also inclined to buy sector indices rather than individual stocks

with the above in mind, provided you can live with the innate volatility of these indices, my choices remain NMX3720 (HG+HC) and NMX2350 (C+M) and i'm also inclined towards the banking sector (sorry; don't know the code), though i rather missed the boat when suggesting same the other day but not acting

I'm on the other side of the coin currently Cynic, I'm buying individual stocks typically miners and gold producers and selling FTSE.

Here's a daily of the banking sector, I think this is too near to the top of the upper range to warrent buying at the moment.


Household goods, I'd expect this to remain flat but it is at least trending up.


Breaking out but also looking overbought.


Looks as though it'll break out if it holds above 16035.


My views only...

thanks shortie .... you're a whizz with these charts ..... how heavily gold-orientated is the mining index (and what's its NMX code?)

http://www.ftse.co.uk/Indices/UK_Indices/Downloads/Appendix_B_Reference_Codes.pdf have a look a page 11, it'll depend on exactly which code you buy.

Typically I'm after zinc and gold at the moment, the old Cluff Gold and Griffin I've just added to my long positions. I'm not really one for sector plays as such, I think its easier to target companies and the commodities they mine.

I'm also keeping an eye on fertilister due to recent potash developments .