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

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.

my average is now 16637, but of course it was higher than that before banking that nice profit

Short @6790.3 - because I feel exposed not having a short!

Think I'll wait for 68...

Have taken another position in Wall St now average 16699.8, so much for a crash...

Also I was surpirsed by the Syria comment in the below statement...
US President Barack Obama said he did not "rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in Iraq, or Syria for that matter".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27834462
I'm sure the weapons manufactures are getting ready for global orderbook.

Just closed my FTSE short @6,749.5 +40.8.