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

I just closed out my FTSE short

15 min FTSE

9:34 EDT - For now, what investors seem to care about is the economic impact of this government shutdown. It's difficult to quantify exactly, but CRT government bond strategist David Ader points to estimates that say about 10-15 bps gets shaved off GDP for every week government is shut down. While one would think these economic headwinds will lead investors into safer assets, the prevailing thought is that this will only compel the Fed to keep stimulating the economy. Until the shutdown starts to threaten a timely increase of the debt ceiling, bonds may keep paying defense as stocks continue to show resilience.

And now I'm short again FTSE.

Looking to close!!!

Closed @6,389. :-)

I'm short again @6,402 - mainly as a precaution.

Does anyone hold yielders in a SB account as futures, as opposed to say an ISA?

Shortie - as you know, I hold SB yielders, but as DFBs.

Thought you probally did Skinny but do you hold solely for the yield or just for a period of time to hedge FTSE shorts? Also why do you hold as DFT's as opposed to futures, futures don't attract the overnight charge that DFTs do?

6390 key support for the FTSE, if the downside is to gain momentum this level will need to be taken out

I do hold for both (the yield and as a hedge) - although last night I was short the FTSE but took on none of today's yielders - mainly because I thought the way the market looked to be heading would cause any of today's yielder's to fall by more than the dividend, which seems largely to have been the case (HSD border line).

As for why - mainly habit - but I should look into the costs as they seem very minimal.

On edit :- last night's adjustment was 0.8 of a point.

Skinny - Any thoughts on Albermarle & Bond?

Not really - I had a cursory glance at this earlier.

I don't know much about them - but a pawn broker going broke!

Blimey - talk about vertigo!

I know, I'm viewing this collapse as being very over done.

I've replaced the charts with some candles - Shortie, you could have 'caught that knife' in April!