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

Post 12918 off 50 points since posting!

I'm still short on the FTSE two bets carried average 6543.1, also short on the DAX Dec Fut @ 8454.. Keep talking Carney

Just looks overbougt to me, fall back to 3940 looks in order. Not a sector I tend to trade through.

was thinking of taking profits here anyway, and your latest comments convinced me, so banked a very useful profit - many thanks

Cynic, well done on your profit.

i confess i find it strange that NMX 3720 is misbehaving so badly, so i guess i'll just grit my teeth and hang on in there

was tempted to try the falling knife trick and could easily have bought at about 10080, but dither dither and easily missed the boat :-)

Cynic, the eight stocks in the FTSE 350 Household Goods sector [NMX3720] are-

Barratt Developments [BDEV] Persimmon [PSN] Bellway [BWY] Reckitt Benckiser Group [RB.] Berkeley Group Holdings (The) [BKG] Redrow [RDW] Bovis Homes Group [BVS] Taylor Wimpey [TW.].

I assume your expecting a rally in these shares to think that the sector will climb further??

Shortie - there are more than 8 stocks.

ABBY, AGA, AIEA,BDEV, BWY, BKG, BVS,CHH, CFX,CRST,HVE,HEAD,JLH,MCB,PSN,PMP,RB.,RDW,SNCL,TW.,VCP,WGB

something like that :-)
i think the housing market has a lot of puff in it, albeit or indeed because it's starting from a horrible place, and that is also the feedback i get from a couple of estate agents i talk to

I stand corrected, is this http://www.lse.co.uk/sector-constituents.asp?sector=3720&sectorname=household_goods_&_home_construction the full list?

Household Goods up +178 this morning..

Shortie - RB up a quid is helping.

i return home with a smile on my face!

Stopped out of the FTSE and DAX last night... Ouch, this will take some time to recover from..

do any of you guys get The Times (today)?
unfortunately i do not, but while waiting at the dentist, i read an interesting article on palm oil shares and agricultural shares in general
which were the plam oil companies mentioned?
i think NBPO may have been one

From DP of IC today, directed towards all you spreadbettors:
"The big risk at this point is clearly the Fed’s announcement tomorrow, which will likely mark the start of its long-awaited “tapering” programme. Some wild moves could accompany the announcement itself, even if the uptrend continues thereafter. I’d be playing it small around now, therefore. "

Its pretty odds on that the FED will taper 10bil. Upswing has been unaffected so unless something else comes out we're pretty much already priced in for $10bil anyway.

quite so, but will the market actually take that badly after all? ...... as we all know, markets tend to be very contrary, so there is a good argument, that once the details of any tapering programme are known, all will stay steady albeit that there may be an initial, negative knee-jerk reaction

i sold one of my NMX3720 positions this morning to lock in a decent profit ...... my greed is now tempting me to buy at it back