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

have just 3 bright spots across my portfolio ......
SOLA .... short at 496 - now 464
PMO .... +51 whereas TLW is -20 and IEC -52
CSR ..... +23 at 571 after a high of 499 - no obvious reason

Dow making some sort of attempt at recovery having hit a low of 12819 ..... currently teasing to get above 12900

On sidelines re FTSE trading at moment, finding it very hard to read the markets, they do seem bearish overall.

There must be alot of investers with plenty of cash, waiting for the correct time to re enter the markets. I have gone to over 60% cash now, and I know I'm certainely not alone. For what it's worth I would think this correction has still some way to fall, but there will be plenty of bargain hunters around.

Been doing quite a bit of hedging long positions, have to be very careful to tick force to open on IG though if there's an existing deficit!

have a smallish Dow long running at the moment ...... currently in the money but not sure whether to set a limit .... have already set stop just in case disaster strikes again.

This is getting very edgy and very difficult for me, i cant be near a computer all day, as on building projects, set buy order for TAN @130p the other day and its triggered, however i can see it continuing to fall after todays weakness, when will the bounce come...?
Just one ray of light today...CRA, of which i am very o'weight

A bounce for TAN or the wider market? I don't have live prices so I don't know what the DOW is currently doing at the moment. As I see it the key technical for the DOW is around 12845. A close below that level would create a "lower low" (lowest currently being Aug 16th), and would signal a trend change from up to down. Looking at other indices I would say many of them are at or near key technical levels. Not surprising really as they all tend to follow each others direction (more or less).

As for TAN, the close today was lower than the previous "lowest low" of 130 on 21/08. Having already posted a "lower higher" of 184 on 10/10 it could now be considered to be in a down trend. An up trend consists of "higher highs" and "higher lows", and a down trend consists of "lower highs" and "lower lows".



Depending on the wider market conditions I can see possible support around 124 and 115, with stronger support around 92. I suspect 100 might also provide support though. Additionally you need to consider the "walls" of the trend channel as other areas of support and resistance. This is just my personal technical analysis (I'm no expert by any means) but I hope it helps.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

looks as though london is in for another horror tomorrow

Glad I shorted today, ker-ching!!... Mid to end of week alway brings the danger of a ralley so will count the pennys tomorrow. My equities are in blood bath at the moment, reds outnumbering the blues badly so second your horror cynic..

Probably worth shorting FTSE ASAP perhaps at 7am. when futures open for my spreadbetting account too much capital tied up in hedging in cfd, any comments for those still up ?

yes , thank the F*ck its the end of Mcclaren

I would have shorted FTSE this eve if hadn't been tied up watching a bunch less deserving of their millions than Merril's ex-boss

Bookies will be smiling all the way to the bank!
Interesting to see if the FTSE picks up a little without the influence of the DOW tomorrow afternoon.

Cant see a similar day tomorrow for the FTSE, the dow has finished badly but only
slightly lower than what it was intraday when the FTSE was still trading so i think
it's priced in and when it opens down tomorrow there will be a strong rally but that
is just my view which means diddly.

As for football it's about time somebody brought in some laws to cap their wages at 10 grand a week, they dont even deserve that, bookies have been making fortunes out of english football for a long time and will continue to do so, long odds on against the best side in the group was very poor value but they know they will
still take the money.

I went long at 6056. looked at weekly chart. Support and resistence more than once over last year at or around 6000. Any comments please.

Reckon fwiw, start down to test below 6000, then a slight bounce later to finish evens or down just a tad, personally i dont care cos CRA is going to pay off my mortgage in two years... lol
ok just kidding!

US stocks tumbled, on worries about bad home loans, a slumping dollar and oil near $100 a barrel...


Well its taken a few months, but eventually the horror of the state of the American economy has finally started to sink in...
But, personally i think the fed will always act in good time and is very clever at keeping the balance, maybe the real horror story will be deflation...

Dow futures up so hold off on ftse short

It sure is difficult to hedge when you dont trade CFD's or Spreads (ie, just longs)
shall i take the small profit in POG in the hope of buying them (or another) cheaper, later, ie hedging against the market dropping more in next couple of days, or shall i gamble on them returning to 14.50 in next couple weeks if the FTSE shows some strength? decisions, decisions...!!!

i like POG a lot too ..... IEC is also worth a further look - see thread and blanche's comment re current price level ...... HOC could be worth a look .... and for minnows, BRR and VML (and perhaps SER) could be worth considering ..... away from commodities, SCHE has tumbled without cause