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

glad to see my dow long is flowering nicely :-)

I have mrw +8p and div, still looks like it's got more to go, see monday.,.

i've stayed away from supermarkets for ages, but with nice little rise on wall street last night, which i hope will be extended on monday (cash dow will indicate), then there must surely be a good chance of a strong day in london to open the week

there were certainly some stocks that have been badly whacked for no fundamental reason in the last couple of days - e.g. EZJ, TCG (recovered a bit) and XEL (bought some friday) - that may pay closer investigation before the open

whether or not there will be a rally before a further sell-off is of course a great unknown ..... shortie would reckon so, as he is short ftse, but good as he assuredly is at reading the entrails, he isn't always right

6852 profit taken earlier this morning, 6824.8 gone short.

Skinny do you know what tomorrows divi payment is?

Not yet Shortie - but I think the only big gun going ex is HSBA - so hopefully fairly minimal.

Thank you Skinny, last weeks cost me a weekend away..

Yes, the last couple of weeks have been spiteful.

6831 added to short positions.

Does galamping cost that much then shortie????.,.

Never been glamping

banked (+42) reasonable dow long and now 50% of that position short at 16482.4
as there seem no puff in the sails, i figured a downward drift was on the cards

.

FTSE :- The hanging man from the 14th is looking better...

Still no update on ex dividend effect tomorrow, but the FTSE companies going ex dividend are :- HSBA,ITRK,CPG,CCL.

Cheers Skinny, took some profits this morning in FTSE, looking to now buy back positions in the 6820's+

6819.5 gone short

Testing short term support?

May 20 (Reuters) - The following FTSE 100 .FTSE companies will go ex-dividend on Wednesday, after which investors will no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. According to Reuters calculations at current market prices, the effect of the resulting adjustment to prices by market-makers would take between 0.93 points and 5.42 points off the index. Name RIC Currency Dividen Stock Max Shift Min Shift d Alternative CARNIVAL CCL.L USc 25 0.107345775 0.107345775 COMPASS CPG.L GBp 8.8 0.626860737 0.626860737 GROUP HSBC HSBA.L USD 0.1 Yes 4.487234743 HOLDINGS INTERTEK ITRK.L GBp 31 0.197504042 0.197504042 GROUP Among FTSE 250 .FTMC companies going ex-dividend are: Name RIC Dividend Unadjusted Currency Dividend CAPITAL&COUNTIES CAPCC.L GBp 1 COMPUTACENTER CCC.L GBp 12.3 DIPLOMA DPLM.L GBp 5.4 DIGNITY DTY.L GBp 11.83 EUROMONEY INST ERM.L GBp 7 HICL INF. HICL.L GBp 3.6 HOME RETAIL HOME.L GBp 2.3 HOWDEN JOIN GRP HWDN.L GBp 4.5 MICHAEL PAGE MPI.L GBp 7.25 PROVIDENT FINCL PFG.L GBp 54 REDEFINE INTL RDI.L GBp 1.2 UDG HEALTHCARE UDG.L EUc 2.69 WITAN INV TST WTAN.L GBp 3.6 XAAR XAR.L GBp 5.5

Just closed an intraday short @6,809.0 +35.

Bought HWDN for the dividend tomorrow.