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

Closed +104

DOW
interesting ..... after the close last night, cash dow recovered 20 ..... at 7 o'clock this morning, cash dow was +40 ..... now it's +1 and struggling

given that it's friday, iraq is getting ever messier, the dow has been on a charge for several weeks and just perhaps yellen will intimate that us interest rates will also rise shortly, yet another down day may be in prospect


shortie/skinny
what is your reading of the entrails?

Skinny "I'm short GBP/EUR @12,502.6 - but may be tempting fate." I take it you meant 1.25026....

Bugger!!

Shortie yes.

Cynic, I've never read the entrails... I was following you on the DOW, mind you i did close a position yesterday for a small profit, and been shorting it @ 100 pts intervals from 16494 as it was rising...

Skinners,

If chunnel ever reached 12,502.6, I might be inclined to short it myself.

:o)

For now though, I'm happy to take the other side of your trades if you're looking to add.

Hils - dots commas decimal places heyho :-)

on edit - I'm short the FTSE again - numpty for closing really.

Have you got ichy fingers now things are turning blue Skinny...

Shortie - 6,736 - 6,740 looks possible today?

Figures @1:30 and 2:55.

What s turning blue ? nothing on my lists..

my dow short is doing me proud - phew!

BG is also performing well against the trend

Closed for now +10.

closed one dow short for +165 as did not want that fritter away

I'll be surprised if the DOW isn't down again this afternoon .

jimmy - i still have arguably too much exposure to dow on the short side, which is why i banked that very profitable position

Sure , what do you think this afternoon red or blue ?

still odds-on red i'ld have thought - see 15840

Stock futures dip; Iraq, sentiment data in focus

I've also taken some profits on todays dip. Currently average on DOW 16649.7, on DAX 9897.8 and 6736 on FTSE... Closed Nikkei at lunchtime slightly down.