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

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 .

.

Shortie - this is what you are trying to post.

FT article

Cheers Skinny, I gave up when I realised the link was on the full stop only. No expert in these matters like yourself.

U.S. economy adds 162,000 jobs in July
well below the 180k forecast, but for the usual perverse reasons, the effect on the market may not be great

I'm still running 3 FTSE short bets, average 6603.4. I debated opening a 4th this morning and in hindsight which I had of done. The reason why I didn't however was risk and I didn't want to over expose myself.

For me the FTSE, DOW, DAX etc, etc. prevailing valuations only make sense whilst low returns on cash hold good. It the expectation of a low cash return is removed regardless of the real economys capacity to gain lasting traction or not, virtully every asset class is vulnerable to a sharp fall in price. This is simply because a rising discount rate has no favourites.

as so often, there's almost certainly decent money to be made in either direction - always presupposing good timing as seen with hindsight!

Apple approaching the top of its range 46330 and starting to look overbougt on its dailys. One to watch right now but a potential short for next week.