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

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

bhunt: I tend to trade in and out in small steps - find it scares me a lot less than hanging in there for a long time. And it's surprising how several little profits of just 25 (sometimes less) or so add up in a day.

Looks like we hit a high at 12329!

??

Having just shed 30 pts in ten minutes I feel the DOW needs to stage a smart turnaround if today's gains are not to be wiped out, possibly an over-statement :))

it's a pretty difficult call i agree .... have already set a stop on my Dow so shall at least get shut out at a profit if it gets hit

Question for you - I trade with barclays - and they charge me 12.50 per trade - hence why I am trying not to do lots of little trades. having said that - I have traded 12 times today - so cost me 150. Is that expensive - or are there cheaper options ?

Well, I've stopped looking for short positions and have drawn an up channel for this afternoon's activity, sitting right at the bottom as I type so plenty of room for more upside...............if it goes up :S

Dropped out of the channel

PTH: thought you'd have your short running now

Toya, I have been short, long and just about everything else!!! Unfortunately I keep picking the wrong moments to close trades by losing faith in my own analysis :( 12320 was the pivot for that particular move and I should have stayed with it rather than closing for a small profit.

Not reading this at well today, so unless my befuddled brain cell wakes up, I won't be trading again this evening

I've not done well either, which is v annoying as the ftse did everything I wanted of it this morning!

dow down to 12,280 - might just be time to climb on board - but I promised I was going to sit on my hands tonight - so I wont be investing.

bh .... guess it depends on whether that is a flat rate regardless of the contract value ... if it is, then in general it sounds pretty cheap ..... however, if you use s/b or cfd, then ask someone like IG about their charges and spread

was shut out of last 50% of Dow, but at a modest profit (no one ever went bankrupt that way!), but still have small FTSE long running which shall leave for the time being to see how Dow finishes up (or down)

DOW looking a bit shaky now, yet again I regret not keeping an ultimately sound position open, although jumped on that particular slide for 16 pts. But it works both ways, I did have a hefty long open in the 90s which I subsequently closed flat.