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

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.

so have you gone short?
i closed a small long position at 12740 for a modest profit, and after some thought, have now gone short at 12693 .... not convinced either move was correct, but we shall see .... certainly Dow seem to have stalled and a reaction, even if temporary, is surely due; that's my so-called logic anyway

Yes short on a Wall St. rolling bet at 12694, done a few trades over 12700 and sold for 12670ish and repeated tonight. Massive fall in the YEN today, didn't have that one on though and with EUR/USD formation complete you can see how costs in the states will be driven up. Higher costs equals less money moving around in the economy resulting in business turnover decline and less profits, less profits, smaller market cap decline in share price.. My logic back...

Explosive that all sounds negative so stocks much go up . As they say things are different this time i.e insanity has usurped madness

Have made up my mind now, and short on ftse at 6070, I don't trade dow so no position there, but believe 12750 to be about the top here. Plenty of results to digest today, market likes AV. results, but can't decide on RBS just yet, nor can I, will now return to trying to make sense of the results.

i dont know why we bother the odds are so stacked against anyone who is on a trading floor. Tried to buy CSR at 319 today only to find td waterhouse couldnt get a price to trade on. Now they are 350. Even when I get it right (which isnt often) not able to trade

I do find they can be slow to fill orders that I leave on the system, so I tend to sit with my finger on the button ready to trade. Even then I had one last week which failed to trigger, but it worked second time.

that's the advantage of a decent on-line broker or whatever ...... i find IG very good, but they of course are only s/b and cfd ..... even if you cannot place your (whole) deal at the prioce indicated, you can easily phone in and they will deal on the spot and/or you can leave a level at which to buy with instruction to part fill, assuming you are happy with that

shorting stocks on IG before the companies report is the way to make money. Stock falls alot quicker than these rise so it is a calculated risk. If you had shorted rentokil, HSBC, CSR, and AL you could have packed up and gone on holiday for the rest of the year.

Hindsight, i do believe, all we really need is crystal balls, or in my case, just balls...

hindsight is wonderful stuff as we all know ..... actually made money both long and short of AL., selling my long yesterday, albeit at only a modest profit, though better than a loss

am currently short of Dow (now with quite tight stop), SOLA and WPP, this last possibly being quite brave

Final results for WPP tomorrow (29th). Advise caution.

that is why i said it was quite a brave call

WPP is expected to be positive but trading down today which is a bit un-nerving but have taken the gamble and gone long

Dow short now closed out at modest profit.

str* .... why are you bullish WPP .... pls answer on WPP thread

re - my earlier short, closed out now, a very good day but mustn't be greedy. Unable to trade tomorrow so best to close now.

In this market good results mean a drop in sp, more and more crazy !