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

So if the FTSE takes 5.2pts off tonight then that equates to £5.20 for every £1 short. PFG goes ex div at 54p so pays £54 for every £1 long. Is this correct Skinny, if so I think I bought too many PFG and got lucky as 2014 right now..!

Yep - nice when it works like that :-)

Everything about PFG says up, I'm surprised I didn't come accross it sooner. On the daily chart the lower trend line seams to track the 50DMA so until this breaks I'm gonna go with the flow and hold.

Sorry guys, I know this is the FTSE thread, will continue PFG dialog over on the PFG thread.

A look over the 6800 wall and didn't like it!

Over half the HWDN dividend so far.

hmm .....

for some reason, the chart above is not updating, unless it only does it every 15 minutes or something

anyway, have just banked an adequate profit for outlay on dow short (+70) and am now tempted to reverse that as index has gently bounced a couple of times from 16400

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so with small beer am now long again 16416.6

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a further small beer at 16365.6

Closed my FTSE short for +90.

Nice one :-)

So what happens now?

not sure why, but after a distinctly lacklustre opening, markets are suddenly looking quite chirpy .... even my dow long is marginally back in the money overall

6819.5 short closed +30pts, no plays in the 6800's range remaining

I've still got one in place based on the hanging man.

Yellen speaks @4:30pm.

I prefer the 30min right now, I'm waiting on a return to 6820's+ before looking to short again.

I'm leaving the main short in based on the daily, but have had 4 shorts since opening it.

Mid 20s seems a reasonable area to go again - I'm not sure what's going to drive it though until 4pm?

Charles Plosser thinks there’s a ticking time bomb at the Fed

If it tracks the range it won't need driving. MPC minutes were bullish driving the pound up this morning, we could see a new short term support line at 6780 with a 40pt range.

meanwhile, dow has rocketed 130 pts so my dow long is very pretty indeed
to avoid wasting it all, i have put in a stop while i go and do some shopping

6809.3 gone short

.

closed dow long (+117) :-)

quite likely i'll open a "small beer" short any time now, but watching

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short dow 16502.2