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 think the market will be somewhat unnerved, so have banked a twiddly profit

Wouldn't be surprised to see some profit taking on Wall St this afternoon.

certainly since the new year, dow has got dizzy at this level and if you go back to page 1 the nasdaq also looks as though it may stall (once again)

should have trusted my instinct first thing this morning and extended my dow short then ..... have done so now at 16414 ...... it was ~35pts lower just after the open and then recovered about 60 pts

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looking a bit silly at the moment though that just wiped out my previous running profit

is the supermarket sector worth shorting or at least the "big 4"?

:-)) I would lean to yes rather than no. Especially MRW

From the Sains write up -

Retail analyst Clive Black at stockbroker Shore Capital described the cuts as a ‘contagion’ and he predicted further downgrades across the sector.

Well I'm short SBRY @326p - results tomorrow, MRW Thursday.

MRW doens't look like it'll bounce yet but I wouldn't bother shorting the sector.

Pound nearly at $1.70......interesting.....oil to rise further ?...

my dow short now back in the money and I confess I expect it to be even more so by the close of biz

Just bought BP (ex dividend tomorrow) to offset some of the 6.8 points on the FTSE tomorrow.

I'll carry my FTSE shorts over and absorb the divi tomorrow I think, I doubled by Cable short so am hoping for a pullback soon....

Skinny BP were ex div feb ???? nothing in forward diary?

Q1 results said dividend of 9.75 cents per ordinary share to be paid in June on BP.

4 times a year divi...

Balerboy - Financial Calendar

Shortie - I've added to my short today - hence the BP long (S/B).

This link is a more reliable source of ex dividend dates and is one stop - Upcoming UK Ex-Dividend Dates

Thanks skinny, just checking you hadn't been on the vino, the second link I already use ta.,.

Not convinced the FTSE is ready to fall, a rise to test 6870 wouldn't surprise me at all. As such I'm holding off adding to shorts at the moment.

Cable has my attention right now, I'm thinking it cant be far of testing support and that would see a fall back to around 1.66....