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

Falcothou..Agreed but in mkts like this 3 bottles of wind is good. especially if your a newcastle fan Wine its good. (Cynic to suceed keegan)...Before you giggle its no less likley than the European bank dropping interset rates in the next month

I think Newcastle probably would not be able to match Cynic's trading pay cheque!

there's a big diff between what one would like to earn and reality! ..... don't know why you guys sometimes think i have some kind of magic wand ..... trust me, i am at least as good at losing money as the best or worst of you - e.g. see post 1363 - though i have now reversed that long position.

Cant believe there's another NUFC fan on here, and drinks copious amounts of wine too, superb...

well done cynic ..... screwed that up well last night .... ah well; never mind; can't always get it right ..... do better next time!

apart from Dow last night (hang my head in shame - lol!), trading for the last couple of days has proved quite fruitful

took profits in PFC (down 6 this morning), AZM (down 3 this morning), CRA (no change)
this morning bought FTSE, WG., OXB (back in) and WSM, all of which are already in the money except FTSE which is pretty much b/e

Oil ticking up well above $100 level again. Has to have good shorting potential if OPEC keep production unchanged and inventories rise, also $ rising

GOOG appears on the CNN video clip this morning. 'Hits' are down but revenue per 'Hit' is up. Implication is that there is further to fall for that stock.

RTN figures out today, plus BARC & RR. go ex-divi (plus many other smaller Co's).
Lots of data from the U.S. also, so might just watch today as very difficult to see which way the market is heading. Futures figure not much help yet.

GOOG
should have mentioned that GOOG (on Nasdaq) must surely be getting oversold.

have managed to bring up a 1 year chart on IG, but as i am something of an imbecile on these things, i cannot work out how to cut and paste from there ..... if anyone can help .....!

sp is currently very close to it's low over the last year, and would have thought that given a decent day on Dow (Nasdaq really), the a significant bounce should be on the cards ..... mind you, with a stock at $444.00, any bounce is going to look significant!

Does anyone know why all the directors of EMAP have sold their shares and the SP has crashed 49%

storeysj - emsp's sp change reflects ex today of special divi of 461p payable on 19/3 following disposal of their consumer magazines & radio business.

indu

following on CNN at 13:03 ET ....

Shares of embattled bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. were halted Wednesday in early afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange for pending news on the company.

Ambac (ABK) shares gained nearly 6 percent before trading was stopped.

Calls to Ambac were not immediately returned.



Very scary

http://www.cnbc.com/id/23485755
Blagged from iii thread
Looks like the Apocalypse hasn't arrived yet

agreed .... couild have been much much worse


Shares of bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. plummeted Wednesday after the company said it would raise $1.5 billion in capital and reorganize its business.

Ambac (ABK) shares plunged by as much as 16 percent on the New York Stock Exchange after being halted at midday for pending company news.

The New York City-based company revealed in an SEC filing that it would discontinue writing insurance on certain structured finance products including all mortgage-backed securities and CDOs, or collateralized debt obligations - investment vehicles that buys and sell bonds.

Anyone shorting oil tonight???

not likely .... and am damn glad to see strong recovery by Dow after Ambac fright

Cotton now looking good, put an ETC thingey on COTN about a month ago and now in profit. Dare I say Stanelco and their Biotec presentation at the International Seminar in Valencia must have gone down well looking at the share price, one to watch..

You have got to be crazy to short oil for any length of time at the moment unless you watch the markets all the time....I have some investments in oil companies...all very nice thank you, but this rise in oil could lead to a weird stockmarket situation of : oil companies going through the roof...and the rest of the market down the drain, well those that depend on oil etc...the whole world is completly dependent on oil... the markets may react by pricing up oil stocks to incredible prices with tech stocks (most of them) and others in the gutter, crazy thought non?

I have 4 shorts on oil at the moment ranging from $96 on Brent up to 10402 on US Crude. Fortunately I do watch it all the time so try to catch momentum on the way up until vertico sets in and i reverse. Still confident these will be significantly in the money by end of April / May

i don't follow softs at all ..... have just never got my brain round them ...... many years ago there was a very long article in ST, which concluded, "If you ever feel you want to invest in coffee futures, lie down and wait for the feeling to go away!"


to more mundane matters .......
BoE will surely leave rates unchanged ...... just wish Europe would cut rates as : is currentlycrucifying for our biz.

of far greater influence on market direction will surely be US - just for a change! ...... would dearly love to see 12300 soundly pierced and held