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

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

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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.

What a topsy turvey world, as Times says investors are fleeing equities to the well known safe haven of oil futures! US Oil inventories out today which will hopefully burst the bubble! Though probably not !

comment in today's Tele that no significant fall in crude prices likely in foreseeable future .... remember that in SAR or Euro terms, crude not that expensive

considering yesterday's huge rise, Dow is remarkably strong .... watch for last 30-60 minutes of trading!

What time in the UK does Wall St close? Could have sworn it was open still at this time last week....

Explosive - I think US Daylight saving time starts 2nd Sunday in March i.e. last Sunday. So Wall St will close 20:00 UK time, until our clocks go forward.

DFBPBJ, thankyou, that would explain it and I now know I'm not losing my marbles, well not yet anyway..

They are now 4 hrs behind us, as apose to 5 normally, so yes, closed at 8.00 our time...

Last comment before the hols...Unless im missing something fundamental if these speculators don't liquidate today on Brent Crude they will have to take delivery of the black stuff on the April contract. Can't believe they want to do that so would expect a retreat. Even if Oil is defying gravity and supply and demand fundamentals

Thanks Big Ted, abit of a worry though being caught, placed a short on Wall St last night without stop loss and couldn't change.... Looks good for today anyway going by the falls we've seen so far on other markets.

Dow did very well to finish in positive territory, even if a fair bit below its peak ...... FTSE indications at 20:00 were +44, so entrails look promising for the morning

Still difficult to call direction, Dow looks to be shrugging off downward pressure and may now be considered to have put in a double bottom...