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

I notice that IG have opened their dow spread to 6 points so been trading on gft instead

I suppose that their is so much indecision and in my more paranoid moments am thinking that the big US players have formed a cartelle to trade in parallel to drive the market up and down for huge profits to make up for all they have lost through sub prime. I am very concerned about all the private equity deals and leveraged positions that look like they could get called in! I suppose there could easily be the huge rally before the fed's next cut.

i would doubt that Fed will allow BSC to collapse, and i hope that is not just wishful thinking ..... to allow a company with as high a profile as BSC to collapse would be potentially catastrophic ..... i suspect that a buyout of some description will be hatched with possibly/probably JPM and Fed lending a discreet helping hand in some way.

i guess another swingeing rate cut on Tuesday is a racing certainty, and one can only hope that the results of all this cheap money will filter through into the US economy within the next 4/6 months .... more important is a rebuilding of consumer confidence, and that is much more difficult

Anyone got any ideas for other plays? GBP/JPY looking a risky short on futures expecting this to climb in the weeks ahead. 210 being my shorting target. CNE looking high on speculation at just under 3000 the same as when FTSE 100 was at 6200 so expecting a fall here, high due to takeover rumours but if no news will become a risky equity to hold at current levels. SWISS all over the place, taken a loss on this and re-evaluating... Also does anyone here play dividends, in on ex-div date hold for record and then sell trying to either take a small equity profit or breakeven?

Also I have found that I can't chart the last couple of weeks, no trend or history like we've seen, unchartered water I think however the more experienced will disagree. News has also been very unpredictable, I figure the DOW will rise as the FTSE did following the BoE intervention in Northern Rock, very similar to the US's BearStearns and the FEDs + JP Morgans response. How high, maybe again the FTSE and our history has the answer in percentages, one for the weekend I think if I can get out of decorating...

Not very savvy re. currencies explosive but saw this today http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/14/cndollar114.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

exp* ..... think you are very brave indeed to short JPY vs ..... BoE will undoubtedly cut rates, and certainly one knowledgeable broker reckons 190 is the floor within the next 6/8/10 months.

overall, markets will be very volatile indeed for at least the next week or two, depending on how the mood of the moment (literally!) takes investors

Would magine USD to strengthen soon, almost oversold (although not without good reason), however research suggests it wont even take good news, just a stop to all the bad news for a rebound, for that reason im looking to short gbpusd verysoon...

Useful site for currency information, although heavily weighted towards charting...

http://www.dailyfx.com/

Looks like tin hat time for the markets, with the Asian markets tumbling overnight?
cyril

Massive gap up by the Yen, USD and GBP taking a hammering, euro in the 157's... A run on the dollar???

Never seen anything like this before... GBPJPY massive drop now just over 19330... EURUSD hit 159 earlier, currently wondering if thats the top, lots of headlines using words like dollar capitulating, tanking etc would support this, possibly looking at G3 central banks intervening... thought it would take several weks for GBPJPY to reach 190, but a 7/800 pip drop overnight is bordering on ridiculous.... mores the pity i didn'thave a short open....

you and me both Ted! .... was looking at it just a few weeks ago at 210/212 but did nothing

have been away from home recently, and too busy to contribute, but still keeping a close on this interesting thread. still have one short running in GAW which is heading in the right direction.

can't see dow heading anywhere but down now, not even Ronnie Regan can save this one.

Cracking research site, although very bearish well worth reading some of their articles...


http://www.moneyweek.com/file/43864/a-rescue-for-bear-stearns-but-the-fed-is-destroying-the-dollar.html

19199 have decided to buy GBP/YEN pair... My only open play at the moment.

sooner or later, and jujst perhaps sooner than one might expect, currencies will start swinging the other way .... interesting to note that whereas only 2/3 months ago ZAR was quite strong, especially against US$, it has now reversed and US$ is equal to its 5 year high against ZAR

Nearly scared myself to death on the Dow OPEN DOWN 148

Have been saying so for a couple of weeks now, but its all about timing, thas why i suggest today may have seen a top for a couple of currencies.... the strong euro will start hitting exports hard and Trichet wont want that, at the endof the day, everyone needs the yanks business, decoupling is never going to happen...

And less than a week after getting badly burnt on Nymex oil shorts, it tumbles back to my break even point, now parity with Brent. Dont believe i've seen a day like this for while...

wonder how scary GS's figures will be? .... surely not much worse than already built into the market, or at least damn well hope not