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

9170.5 gone long on the DAX

9193.5 closed +23

Nice one Shortie.

Well done Shortie - I was stopped out of DOW last night for +32

Cheers guys, I had a few plays on the DAX this morning, all out at profits now.

I might begin Shorting Apple this afternoon

9627 short AAPL

Short DOW @ 16482

9553 AAPL closed +74

That looks like a gravestone doji on the FTSE?

Haven't played the Dow for years, never profitably, but had a small go on Friday & today, both with modest profits. Where's my MOTU badge?

SC, I have 'Cycling Proficiency.' I think that's all you need :-)

dow - 16500 just about holding, as it rather needs to ..... shall be happier to see it close a reasonable lump higher though

Ah, well no wonder I never made money on it Rocky. :-)

this is turning into a jolly evening with dow now +84 at 16578

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closed half for +50 and shall leave remainder to run for now

Still plenty of time, as Phil Neville would say in my situation!

don 't let that short run away with all your dosh; i should know for i have done it all too often :-)

Thanks Cynic, I'm not convinced it's going north yet, but won't let it get too far away from me.

9229 long on the DAX

Fingers crossed it breaks back above the cloud