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

Wall St now positive which makes closing my losing trade even more galling, especially as I closed another one further down for a small profit. Should have stuck to my guns. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I have found that the market is swinging wildly at the moment and it seems that no matter where you open a long or a short, at some time during the day you will be both massively in the red or massively in the black at some point in time.

The long that I opened this morning lost 50 points before it recovered and i ended up closing with a similar gain.

Not always the case though, dangerous game to assume it will come back to you.

am still long both FTSE and Dow .... will continue to watch and may well close part or even all during the course of the evening, not least because i am playing golf early tomorrow and shall not be able to monitor until about noon.

I'm back - and was taken out by the low spike that just barely touched my stop loss. Will have to make it up tonight, what a bore.

Pth: I do agree with your comment in 1606 above, re silly games and positions before an announcement, but it can give one the opportunity to ride on the back of that - bit like riding the crest of a wave; not that I'm a surfer!

..more like a roller coaster at the moment. Still long on the FTSE - but marginal gain

Cynic - question for you - serious.

You commented above that you were long on both the FTSE and the Dow. Why? - is there a benefit in doing both as generally it appears that one follows the other - albeit that the Dow seems more volatile - too volatile for me at times ?,

Just wondered ??

the two do not necessarily move entirely in step and it seemed a good idea at the time ...... however, shall prob shut off 50% of my FTSE position before i leave the office ..... another modest profit, but thank you very much! ..... Dow i shall prob stay with during the evening .... if it finishes strong, then may open up new FTSE position when Dow closes, on the basis that the indicated rise for London tomorrow will be understated ..... doesn't always work out that way, as F/E can ambush everything and/or bad news after hours in USA

Considering a short if it gets to 12300, only considering though;)

Thanks for that - no criticism implied -just trying to understand why you had both. I am not confident enough yet to do more than play with the dow as it does seem extremely volatile - and I am not always nimble enough to react to its changes of direction.

you also need to be monitoring constantly ikf you are not to frighten yourself ..... or have limits and stops, though it can be very tiresome to find one shut out preamturely in either direction

btw, sold 50% of FTSE .... diddy profit (98 clear), but still cash in the bank

Peter - any logic to your shorting at 12300 (it got there!) or is it just gut feeling? .... i just get the feeling that tonight could be strong, for no other reason than there was no bad news earlier and Dow has come back quite a way in the last few sessions

cash in the bank is always good. Better than having paper profits and then losing the lot - as I have done several times !!

I think this rally might still have some legs on it so am still in - but I have brought my stoploss closer so that I dont loose all my profit on a sudden change of direction.

Richard, I posted earlier that I thought the DOW would have an up day, however I am trading much shorter time frames off 3 and 5 min charts. My longer term charts have resistance at 12310 and 12320, hence looking for a short trade. Must admit though looking quite strong right now and if I was long I wouldn't be in a rush to close.

12310 broken -look like 12320 could also be broken

I think the DOW could possibly recover to as far as 12346-12388 (for what it's worth). Will try to take small profits as it goes up, just in case it falls back on me!

As soon as I posted the above, it turned - typical!

I have closed my Ftse long - I will let the voices of experience guide me - thanks

toya -likewise - as soon as I closed it, it went up.

Still managed to bank 75 on that last foray into the market - not a lot by your guys standards - but enough for me

Still looking quite strong to me, although 20 held......just