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

Small short @6,726.7

I'm still running shorts, looking at Asia overnight a fall on the FTSE looks on the cards.

HOUSING MARKET
forget all the hype on twaddle in the press and worse still, on the NOWT thread

i have rather better than anecdotal insight in both the north east and south east (sort of kent)

in the first, house sales tend to die from about now until the spring, with many unsold properties merely being withdrawn to avoid them becoming "stale"
in any case, a major problem in NE has long been a supply of houses to sell, though selling has not been easy either - peeps with too high expectations
however, this has changed quite dramatically even in the last few weeks

in the kent area, houses in the correct location and realistically priced are now being snapped up almost as soon as they hit the market
it could be argued that this is a "cheap" area for commuters as there are very good road and rail links, which may well get even better in the coming years

To be fair, that's the same for any area which is within commuting distance to London. Certainly in Norfolk & Suffolk, any town or even village with a main railway link, is prime location and very desirable. It seems those on London wages but with property outside London are winning hands down. Of course that means that properties are really overvalued, though arguably that's all down to supply & demand.

Supply & Demand?... It was ever thus.

location, location, location......

of course to stan and twas always thus to hali

nevertheless, has been a long spell - 2/3/4 years - where houses could not be shifted except perhaps at knock-down prices
in a large part, this was due to the banks and similar refusing to lend, but also with peeps being too scared to buy for all sorts of reasons
thus, no demand even if there was supply
even great location did not always help

.

Apart from hopes and dreams you have to wonder whats driving the FTSE right now..

BP & RDSB today.

what else do you think ever drives stocks and shares, the reverse being fear
does one assume you are still short?

I am still yes

0.25 points tomorrow - so not too expensive!

I'm not particulary exposed to the FTSE anyway. Keep debating a long future but at these levels it seams maddness as there uncharted pretty much.

6840.27 is the 2013 closing high with an intraday high of 6875.62 on May 22nd.

I hedged half my FTSE position this morning, in hindsight not the wisest of calls but the March 2014 future for buy was valued at 6748

i have now effectively closed my ftse + dow longs (profitably!), leaving just a single dow long running

Struggling for direction at the moment.

Looks like the whole market is.

imo, it's just pausing for breath, though dow is getting near its targetted peak