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

after writing last thread just checked ftse and it is now at 6070, so sorry for stating the bleeding obvious. ftse and dax look strong today, so no shorting for me this morning.

ftse has been stuck at 6070 range since 09:30, has been good scalping range so far, only looking at 10 points each time.

6150 is my target

Dow is being quite contrary insofar as it is accepting bad news as good - i.e. the obvioius perception is that the bad news will precipitate yet another rate cut, whatever nastiness that may bring in its wake.

my own long position got shut out while i was at lunch, but suspect i would have closed it off anyway ..... but nice little profit in the bank

since then Dow has pushed up through 12600, but my own inclination will be to go short later especially if 12650 is hit ..... too far too fast goes the logic, with surely more bad news to come tomorow

All shorts now hit their stop losses after bringing them in after last couple of days..... Think I'm going to re-evaluate before getting back in, lost alot over the past few days and have no intention of throwing more in the same direction. Would be nice though to get the top right, 12707 currently....

confess i am amazed to see Dow zoom straight up to 12700, which makes my initial short this afternoon at 12624 look a bit sick ...... having done quite well over recent weeks, i have now doubled up at 12691 and hope i shall not live to regret it

at least i have the comfort that nearly all the rest of my portfolio is long, so if Dow stays at this comparatively stratospheric level, there will be some good profits in London tomorrow morning


by the way, public thanks to Toya who suggested i went long AL. this morning ..... being a sheep (really an old goat!), i did and that has finished the day nicely in the money

think the breakout from current range has been well publicised, could see it changing recently to positive, with troughs between, i think we are going to see 13000 soon...

dow seems intent on reaching 13000, but starting tomorrow we have plenty of UK company results to the end of the week. including HBOS tomorrow and RBS Thursday, I think RBS will be a crucial one to watch, with all sorts of rumours, from div cut to rights issue or 3.0bn w/o, even asset sales.

I wiil short ftse whenever it passes back through 6000, but I can't decide on a good entrance for a short higher up yet, if it keeps rising. Will have to look back at some historical data tonight to try and come up with a figure, then probably disregard, change my mind and get the timing wrong.

oh well .... could have been far worse .... ended up +/- breaking even on the day with all Dow positions ...... with Dow closing comfortably above 12650 all to play for on the morrow

Very very tempting the short from the off, Yen June Futures over 21000 now, thats another tempting play.... At least there wasn't another 200 point gainer on the end of the day.

all shorts seem to be dangerous these days. Shorted oil 4 days ago and has gone up $4 since, although still holding as expecting the trend to reverse down when we pass through the winter. Will double my stake and have my finger on the button to catch the monentum from the inventory report later today.

the brain says that all is doom and gloom and that the markets should tumble, arguably quite heavily.

the markets say, looking 6 months ahead, that things are not really going to get any worse and that the stimulus to US economy really will work, the backlash of high(er) inflation to be dealt with on another day.

today sees more ecnomic data from US and it is hard to imagine that that will be anything but horrid.

will the markets hiccup and then just shrug their shoulders?

thus today is one either for sitting on ones hands, and perhaps missing a lot of profitable action, or going with gut instinct and riding the roller coaster

My resolve is currently being tested as i have multiple shorts running on the pound against the dollar, gut instinct says its a great shorting opertunity now at 1.99, as we have enough problems in our own economy, however i have gone a little over my comfort level... Fact is most economists predict the pound to weaken further, and also that the dollar will recover due to them being much further ahead in the slowdown than the rest of the world, ie they are likely to recover quicklier... yesterdays news has created a nice spike against the pound... (i hope!)

I think the world would be a far better place if the US took its medicine for what essentially their financial system has cocked up and stopped lowering interest rates. But instead they devalue their currency and give the rest of the world nightmare inflation with out of control commodity prices. When the chickens finally come home to roost it could be far worse than the 70's. But of course you can do that when your the centre of the universe.

What else could the US do with their huge trade deficit, but to sell worthless pieces of paper to their trading partners denominated in a devaluing currency (sorry I meant derrivatives).Seems a good wheeze to me.

the rhetoric is fine and may even have some value - personally i have no real view ..... the only bit i care about is whether i can persuade my portfolio to make money, either on long or short tack

cynic absolutely but the parameters change day by day. Im from the old school of economics that bad news was bad for equities, recession was bad for commodities and inflation was bad for everyone. There is no logic to how things are going. I can't decide if the US are idiots , delutional or just so dam clever i just dont get it but looking at the recent posts from folk it doesnt look like im the only one :-)

don't fret about the philosophy ands esoterics .... just concentrate on trying to read the rhythm and impetus!

Well DOW Futures figure was +20 when I last looked. Now it's -88. Talk about rhythm. Any particular beat to dance to?

not that i listen to it these days but Anthrax had a song called its a madhouse which is probably appropriate.