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

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 !

exception--WSM to my great cost I expected the usual fall and it took off like a rocket!! Now I'm in KENZ and not a flicker of life so far!!

cannot for the life of me work out where the markets are headed tomorrow ...... US finished off the bottom, but Bernanke's comments were hardly encouraging, but that almost certainly means further rate cuts for better or worse ...... i should imagine F/E will be down, but perhaps more in the footsteps of US rather than self-propelled

There has in recent past been a sell off on Fridays. The market also seems to rise and fall in 3-4 day cycles at the moment tough this may be no guide to the future of course

Poor figures from Dell & another rogue trader scandal (M F Global commodities trader), if I was a spreadbetter I would certainly consider shorting the DOW today, coupled with the possibility of friday afternoon profit taking on the FTSE.

John, hope you re-entered your gpbjpy short, i too closed last week, but set order (which unfortunately triggered first thing lower than set, when it gapped down), but it is heading down sharply this morning...

We might be in a bear market (as so it seems), but there are some terrific stocks out there !, shame the market doesn't react more to the good ones!

DOW futures currently -88.
Are all you spreadbetters & CFD traders short this afternoon?

not exactly a fun week, but managed to squeeze out a reasonable profit since last friday, though not sure how! ...... just for reference, i note my portfolio value at the end of trade each friday

Ted - No have left the Yen now, good fall today though but I fully expect it to reach the 210-211 again in the next couple of weeks, 205 is as low as I think it'll go but with March futures coming to an end don't want to be caught short so will play against the June future. Will short then as Wall St will be at lower levels. Keep an eye on Desire (DES) lots of movement up this week on the back of a farm out agreement, too soon too fast I'm thinking especially with the FTSE across the board declines. Copper also looks like it going to break out after consolidating but again want the future play for June rather than March so will bide my time.

memory tells me 190 is the target within the next 12 months, but will need to remember to check