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

Cynic has been calling this exactly right for some time now, in contrast to goldfinger who would have had everyone pressing the sell/panic button weeks ago.

Cynic, did you really think for one minute that you would get an honest answer to your 13280 post? :-)

Should be a good day tomorrow :-))

i was merely curious .... in fact, dow and thus stocks by definition, have scarcely moved since late this afternoon ..... and yes, i think tomorrow should at least start strongly

don't forget we have more of this same nonsense to go through in a few months time

Shortie - further to our exchange about out of hours spreads, the FTSE is currently being quoted by 2 sites @ 6,554.1 - 6,560.1 and 6,548.8- 6,553.8.

Guess which one I'm short overnight with?

having banked profits in 2 of my long dow positions yesterday at considerably higher than now, i may be tempted to buy them back

=============

bought back one at 15281, so we'll see what happens

Skinners,

Sorry, but when you trade overnight on the FTSE and use a broker who isn't a broker in the true sense of the word, but who is actually acting as a market maker and taking the other side of your trade, then you're effectively turning a three-player zero-sum game where one player always wins into a two-player zero-sum game where one player always wins. And guess which player the retail punter is.

If you want to trade overnight, why don't you trade the Yen crosses instead? At least there's some reasonable liquidity once the Far East opens and you can get in and out relatively easily with good spreads on good size. Especially if you go raw spread ECN instead of MM.

Hils - I was sorta being facetious :-)

Lately, I've been short the FTSE overnight most days to one extent or another.

I keep meaning to take the time to explore currencies etc - hmmm!

You know me, Skinners. I like to say things as I see them, and I've never understood why punters use spreadbet companies. :o)

But, in the absence of anything else of any substance to track, you'll probably find that most spreadbet companies make their overnight index markets by tracking the relevant Yen cross.

I will look into it - it's not like I have anything better to do with my time! :-)

Daily FTSE - Still shows scope to push up a little further, 3 short contracts held, will add a forth at above 6600.

30min FTSE

ye of nimble fingers could have done very well indeed trading dow today ..... i was not inclined to be glued, so missed out on the excitement, though whether or not i would have bought another long at about 15240 is a great unknown

Flashing Red! Europe bullishness triggers 'sell' signal
Published: Thursday, 17 Oct 2013 | 8:48 AM

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101120789

GF - typical!


Shortie - it looks like you may get your 6,600.

The 'FTSE100 tipped to open comfortably higher today' feeling didn't last long this morning! Not sure 'comfortably higher' was very accurate either!

I got my 6614 Skinny

Harry - I'll take 0.3+% every day :-)

Shortie - I was was tempted - not too much in the way of news that I can see - so where next?

Skinny - post 13301 I figure this trend will continue, note though September high outside the line as was the October low so I probally need to adjust the angle slightly. Fed tapering rumours I expect will cause a pull back.

The biggest risk to being short is a retest of 6660 roughly if it goes the other way.

Re tapering :- Analysis: Washington budget battle may delay Fed taper until 2014

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:14pm EDT
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve may have to wait until early next year before it sees sufficient strength in the U.S. economy to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, after a destructive Washington budget battle that may take a bite out of growth.