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

Bought some sugar yesterday. Recent 10% drop chart turning up, well so far anyway. Increasing Asian sweet tooth, cutting of eu subsidies for sugarbeet, high crude prices meaning Brazil shifts more sugar production to automobile use, questionable efficacy of sugarfree products and the usual rough weather and higher production input costs. Next Fed decision on March 18th. officially though no telling when they might next step in!

did you buy milk and coffee too?

I'm pleased to see the pain you suffered on the dow hasn't dented your sense of humour Cynic - and hope the pain will soon pass also.

Having played with my IG demo account, I went 'live' on Friday and nearly scared myself to death on the dow as it suddenly turned in the wrong direction! Luckily it came back and I made the tiniest profit. Will have a look at what the FTSE has been doing before Monday opening.

Couldn't afford milk and coffee. How about Brian Ashton's job cynic? Sure to be a vacancy soon.

no kidding .... what a totally inept display by both sides .... awful game and wales/ireland was little better

All the equities i bought after the drop in August failed to recover to a point were I would sell, and thats before this set back so guess ill be holding for at least 12 months if not longer. At least my shorts running until March might start baring fruits. Don't expect a rebound next week, I know that Merrill's results will be truely awful and far worse than wall street is expecting. With margin calls picking up pace and commercial paper being offloaded at up to 90% discount to book expect more domino's to fall next week.

Had a domino's last night, lovely jubbly...

I think the next domino could be me. The intraday move up in oil has put we out a 5 figure sum. I am going to do the irresponsible thing, switch off the computer - go to bed and then probably wake up bankrupt. Hey ho

str* .... sorry to hear you backed the wrong horse .... very easily done .... however, the momentum of oil is against you and must surely remain or at least be inclined that way so long as $ remains so weak

not sure how critical 11800 may be, but am watching to see iof Dow breaks down through that too ..... prob no serious support until 11635 or thereabouts, but a hefty bounce is also not out of the question

Cynic this has gone way beyond a weak $ story otherwise the $ would be 0.5 to the Euro. Nothing but a speculation bubble, especially as the so called Geo Political issues in South American underpinning price have receded. This will will burn alot of people. Certainly i will not be one of them and so will avoid coughing up the margin and take the loss on the chin, albeit a bloody big one.

$107 may or may not be sustainable in the medium/long term ..... but certainly in terms of SAR oil is not excessively expensive, nor even to eurozone .... it is primarily or even only (but an important only it has to be said) the oil-greedy US that suffers

Orgy of speculation ! to think I closed out my oil long hedge this morning before going out for a 20 point profit! I know how you feel storeysj, bloody Mondays at least the roof didn't get ripped off the house by the storm!

I am actually in a similar position, been running longs on Brent as a hedge against shorts on Nymex, getting bit edgy at the mo, but up handsomely on banked money, just need to make enough on peaks and troughs to cover some earlier positions that are now running at a fair loss...

Not sure how long or how far this current rally on oil will go or last, I need to see $106 again to restore order... surely not out of the question???

11800 looking like support, have closed down the short positions as expecting a rise... Swiss looking very low...

11800 so far has proved no suppport at all .... end of day may show differently

Disappointed with myself for getting into the position i'm currently in, too many shorts on Nymex... need to be going with the flow, not against!

Agree that a price being pushed higher by fund buying and not supported y factual events is a recipe for disaster, trouble is no-one knows how long it may go on for...

No Trading on Wall St.....??