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

gone long @ 6573.5

That's probably why they still don't tax spreadbetting, jimmy!

HARRY i rarely use it , only buy shares .

DOW
whither now?
very hard to tell .... i'm currently running short here but am decidedly undecided whether or not to cash in all/part of the profit
on that basis i probably ought to cash in and sit on my hands, but always difficult to do :-)

FTSE down into the 6400's....

Having been whopped yesterday I'm a bit loathed to bottom pick - although 6497 is S3!!

Ok long 6,497.3

Luckily I didn't leave my long running for long... Into the 6400's though which is where I thought we'd head.

On another note why is it so difficult to find the right staples for your staplier. No idea what all the numbers mean on the boxes, trial and error getting the damb things stuck seamed the quickest method.... And here was me thinking charting was challenging.

I bit the bullet -30 yesterday.

RSL down another 6.8% this morning - ouch!!!

I'd be well out of any insurers selling robbing annuities right now..

They will adapt and for a great number of people, annuities will still prove an attractive option.

Maybe so, but with them not being maditory now it'll increase competition against not having one which could well see them becoming better.

Unfortunately, my AVC pension fund was turned into an annuity last month!
There was no inkling that there was such a change on the cards. Anyway, it was only part of my pension and the deal I struck was good enough for me.

Agreed - I hold the 3 biggest fallers and to put their performance into perspective :-

Fingers crossed they hold yields

closed both dow and ftse shorts, thankfully for ok profit

TT - just seen your post - a tad annoying!

reversed to dow long at 16212 ..... only small, but looking ok at the moment