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

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.

more fundamental i fear, though FTSE is primarily driven by banks and oil ...... nevertheless, prices were slashed almost indiscriminately, which indicates a certain level of forced sales ...... a decent bounce must surely be on the cards, he commented more with hope than expectation.

Darradev - Bad luck, same for me today I went long at 6196 and hit my stop 15 minutes later at 6171. Still learning at the moment, and lesson has been learnt, don't try and be too clever, catching falling knives, bucking the market etc all come to mind.

Only taking small positions until I start winning more than losing.

Evening spit..., thanks for the words of understanding. It's more frustrating than anything else. Having been 'watching' and getting it right for the previous few days last week and then to 'blow it' in a few hours...

Anyway, another day, another opportunity. :-)

On another topic, I see Mr Parvizi and the Directors have increased their stake in GOO, so maybe some cheer there in the comng days/weeks. I remember around this time last year (Dec) it went ballistic.

Just purely from a charting perspective, DOW is now sub 13000 & also below the 200 DMA. I'm not sure how relevant the 200 DMA is for a major index, but historically there don't seem to be many sustained breakouts. The only thing that possibly stands out on the 10 year chart is that bear & bull cycles tend to be about 5 year periods, which would suggest we are at the peak & now heading down. FTSE chart is slightly different, but still cyclical. Imo, the 10 year chart still shows we are at the top. Opinions welcome, but the gravy train may be over for a while.

i'm a damn fool and am currently long Dow ..... i do not at all like that index is below 13,000 and 200 dma, but believe real key number is 12850 or thereabouts

As you have said many times, no stock goes up or down in a straight line & I would expect DOW to test 13000 support a couple of times, but................2008 looks like it may be heading downwards on the chart.

The DOW is still making higher highs and higher lows, so technically still in an uptrend. A close below 12845 ish would create a "lower low" and indicate a possible trend change. If it should slide then I'd look for a bounce around 12520 ish. Think it's "thanks giving" in the US this week, so lower than average volumes may also make things a little volatile.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

the nasdaq still has not broken the 200ma and is likely to go up tomorrow on the back of HP , expecting a bounce on all indices