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

the nasdaq still has not broken the 200ma and is likely to go up tomorrow on the back of HP , expecting a bounce on all indices

Still on the chart theme, looking at the 10 year chart for the FTSE 100, 350, Small cap & Fledgling, they all seem to follow roughly the same pattern (naturally enough), but the AIM chart looks to follow it's own pattern, totally unrelated to the main market. For those that trade stocks conventionally, maybe that is the sector to look at in a bear market?
Nice bounce today, doc. Spot on with your diagnosis.

going to test 6000 soon...?!

DOW futures currently +50, so slight FTSE recovery looking likely, imo.

Just scraped above the 13000 mark. Tenuous reprieve.
Hoping for a reasonable day on the FTSE tomorrow.

but remember Dow was below 12900 at one point, so a good bounce ....phew!

I'm seeing the bears right now so a short for me.

Surprised by the market being lower this morning, for me, shows the change in mood now, to bearish, any reason at all and the market drops by 100 points, loads of bullish statements around this morning and doing nothing to help the market...

this is all starting to look very very scary indeed ...... Dow indications now -110 ..... for myself, i have sold quite a lot of mis-behaving stocks this morning, albeit that it means crystalising some quite nasty losses and/or brought back into line other stocks where i was significantly o'weight

have also shorted SOLA again!

last nights rise looked like bear closing as dow hit the magic number of 850

i very much fear that 12850 will be significantly breached this afternoon, which could be the start of whole new and very unfriendly ball game

quirkily, this could easily mean NRK surging as short positions are closed off to take profits and/or cover margins elsewhere

the so-called government are in such a mess i can see them taking the j.c.flowers offer to get back as much money as quickly as they can

and it sure does not look like the US are going into the holidays with the usual fuzzy feeling

Not sure it's best to cash in losses just yet. Slight losses could easily go in to profit on a bounce, which is probable after the U.S. holiday, imo.
I assume you are shorting the DOW today, cynic? But long on the FTSE while the U.S. eat their turkeys? I suppose there will even be a shortage of them this year in the U.K.

no, not short Dow as indications last night were for firm F/E etc and by this morning, the rug had already been pulled ...... initial downside is (only!) to 12850, from where one could or arguably see a bounce.

am currently only short SOLA, which i openbed this morning

have just 3 bright spots across my portfolio ......
SOLA .... short at 496 - now 464
PMO .... +51 whereas TLW is -20 and IEC -52
CSR ..... +23 at 571 after a high of 499 - no obvious reason

Dow making some sort of attempt at recovery having hit a low of 12819 ..... currently teasing to get above 12900

On sidelines re FTSE trading at moment, finding it very hard to read the markets, they do seem bearish overall.

There must be alot of investers with plenty of cash, waiting for the correct time to re enter the markets. I have gone to over 60% cash now, and I know I'm certainely not alone. For what it's worth I would think this correction has still some way to fall, but there will be plenty of bargain hunters around.

Been doing quite a bit of hedging long positions, have to be very careful to tick force to open on IG though if there's an existing deficit!

have a smallish Dow long running at the moment ...... currently in the money but not sure whether to set a limit .... have already set stop just in case disaster strikes again.

This is getting very edgy and very difficult for me, i cant be near a computer all day, as on building projects, set buy order for TAN @130p the other day and its triggered, however i can see it continuing to fall after todays weakness, when will the bounce come...?
Just one ray of light today...CRA, of which i am very o'weight