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

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.

I need to put 'esoterics' through the thesaurus cynic. I think there could soon be a big push to get commodities valued in a bundle of currencies soon and or dollar pegged currencies escaping its grip.

i hold a small long from last knockings last night, and confess thought i had called it wrong .... however, the market seems intent in ploughing upwards, and though i look on in amazement, far be it from me to piss against the wind.

Dow - 12800/12825 looks to be a pretty major test

on the basis that dow has not far to run until next major resistance, have banked some modest profits on sticks which i have bought over the last few days ..... if market surges onwards, so well and good ..... if there is a reaction, and do remember the market has recovered dramatically in the last few days, then the correction could be quite sharp .... some funds in the war chest were never a bad idea

for a little light diversion ...... on 3rd January I picked the following stocks to follow in 2008, so let's see how they have done

SCHE then 535.....now 400.5
PFC 550...........536
ORE 76.............82
CEY 59.5..........77.75
TAN 138..........107
BRR 20.75........13.25

and alternates of
EO. 51.5..........57.5
PVCS 148...........138
CRA 58.............75

and perhaps even
VIY 6.1............7.63


i actually hold all of these and others, though have undoubtedly traded most since the new year.
i own up to taking an absolute pasting in mid/late January when the markets collapsed and i was thick, greedy and undisciplined, but am glad to say, though far from my peak then, am recovering nicely.

beastly system didn't like my spacing, so cheated instead! .... certainly some stinkers there but also one or two that have done very nicely.

I've been relativly unscathed making profits until last Friday. Have taken some heavy hits since then but have closed all positions except one, nice to see 1.5 EUR/USD today and fingers crossed it holds completing the formation. FTSE & DOW at silly levels currently, I think theres an awful lot of goodwill in the price which also goes for a great deal of shares, the indicies highs seam artificial against losses in share price against constituents. Agreed the markets fell too fast too soon and a retracement was due, just I can't justify back to these levels.