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

.

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

Remember boys in general, November is the 1st of the historically best 6 months cycle when more of those that knows usually come back into the market.

16175 is the dow target and for sure i'll be shorting when it hits that

meanwhile, i would expect the market to fall back this evening, and if it does by say 100 points or so, then i may well buy again

November Traders' online magazine here.

Yes but Cynic have you forgotten you said at end of last week you had taken money off the table.

Heres how I see it.........



and

when i wrote that, whenever it was, it was most certainly true (i've looked back to 11/10 and see nothing) ..... anyway, too long ago now :-) but i'm pretty sure i was relatively heavily exposed on both ftse and dow and also, at that time, on NMX 3720 all of which i cut back - and perhaps some other bits too

since then, i have certainly bought into a few stocks like PAG, VOD (not very bright), FOXT and SGP (of course)

have checked my account and see i sold quite a lot of stuff on 3rd and 7th, but very little after that

I've no exposure to Wall St. On the FTSE however I still believe the market has become overpriced, saying that the market remains bullish. For how long is another question, funding for the US government would only extend to mid-January and the debt ceiling increase until mid-February there is a risk the same drama will be playing out once again a few months from now. How long will the BoE hold interest rates is another question, I doubt they'll go any lower so up is the only way. When the interest rate increases then I believe there will be a shift of money exiting equities and going back into debt.