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

Had a rubbish couple of days myself, two trades which were initially in the money, only to be left to meet their target, but which hit the s/l instead.

Here we go this should be the begining of short term support testing that I've been waiting for.

6585 closed at 6555 +30.. thats me done on the FTSE for now

pretty half-hearted support and indeed, trying to duck down below

Im expecting to be long this afternoon, I think the DOW will recover some of last nights losses so I'll sit on the fence until this afternoon now.

These hammer formations on the 30min FTSE indicate support found and a potential change of direction.. I'll wait for the green bars though before getting into it.

Well done earlier Shortie - MACD on the 10 minute looks like 'buy me'.

or not...

Thanks Skinnyl, I agree looks like a buy, it could well dump a further 30pts though if the cross doesn't establish... Tempting as the buy maybe, I'm going to wait..

An interesting afternoon!

As long as it doesn't go sideways!!

cash dow not exactly full of beans ...... i think it was +40 first thing this morning and has now, quite quickly, dropped away to -25

ftse marginally following in sympathy

twitchy afternoon ahead i dare say

=============

cash dow now -60
ran and cashed a small short earlier; shame with hindsight :-)

BalerBoy,

See Nowt thread.

this won't help sentiment, though i have no idea what was expected ....

JPMorgan hit by fixed income trading slump
JPMorgan Chase launched Wall Street’s earnings season with weaker first-quarter results, hit by a sharp decline in revenues from fixed income trading and mortgages.
The largest US bank by assets reported net income of $5.3bn for the first three months of the year, down 19 per cent from the first quarter of last year. Earnings per share fell to $1.28 from $1.59 a year ago.

Yes its caused the banks to wobble even more.

J.P. Morgan shares fall 2% on earnings miss

Before going to bed this morn went short on ETX platform at 6580.2 with a limit @ 6551.9 And Cap Spreads platform at 6582.5 with a limit at 6510.0.

ETX trade filled + 28.30
Caps trade still running,just moved my stop to6567.5 to lock in +15

Before going to bed this morn went short on ETX platform at 6580.2 with a limit @ 6551.9 And Cap Spreads platform at 6582.5 with a limit at 6510.0.

ETX trade filled + 28.30
Caps trade still running,just moved my stop to6567.5 to lock in +15

Nice one Chris.

How many times did you go to bed? :-)

Well done Chris.