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

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.....??

comment not understood
Dow looks to have closed well under notional suypport of 11800 so expect F/E to sell-off quite hard with knock-on in London.
At least i have minor comfort from my Dow and FTSE shorts as well as in SOLA and WPP, but fear will be little more than a sop

oil seems to have steadied, although rememeber thinking that yesterday. Another $8 fall and im in the money LOL. Whatever, happens I am closing out tomorrow and going skiing for three weeks in colorado. A nice 24 hour flight from Singapore but still less painful than these markets. Have fun all

$110 barrel, here we come, wow money still piling into oil, and although i can see this trend continuing for the foreseeable future, it must surely go bang...

i must be in the twilight zone. Took the dog for a walk and the FTSE's up and oil back a $. Need to get away from my screens more often

while Wall Street's burst for glory brings very welcome relief, just watch out ..... the important 12000 level has been challenged a couple of times so far and has failed to hold ..... keep an eye on this, especially towards or at the close ..... a strong move in one direction or another is almost certain

not sure on record from anyone, but am truly delighted to have lost money on my FTSE and Dow shorts, though am now long Dow and have made up much of what i lost .... Dow +406 at 12165 as i write

hope it jumps further towards close, but shall be watching with a view of cashing at least some of this profit

Glad I closed my short positions yesterday.....

Well, things looking a bit more cheerful, Fed messed things up for me a tad, as the price of a few companies i'm interested in has got away from me a tad, the big sell off hasn't come (yet), and know wondering if we are actually seeing some equities bottoming out? Certainly TAN for one keeps bouncing off of the 85p mark.
Having said that - little bit muted on FTSE this morning... was expecting a bit more after such a strong late performance by the DOW last night.