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

rise before the fall i rather think so am now short dow at 16586

======================

past my bedtime and really tired so cashed in at 16543
almost certainly more to go for, but never mind

It did have , but good call cynic.

very surprised to see cash dow now ~+120
what have i missed?

again ...... what's the excitement that cash dow has recovered all last night's loss + a bit more?

Maybe not just one thing......maybe a combination of upbeat news:

"Data today showed fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits over the past month than at any time in 14 years as an improving economy prompted employers to hold on to staff.

Caterpillar jumped 4.2 percent to $98.50 after the world’s largest maker of construction equipment said it expects full-year earnings excluding one-time items of $6.50 per share, from $6.20 previously. It also reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share that beat estimates.

Boston Scientific rose 2.5 percent to $12.63 after raising its full-year earnings forecast to at least 81 cents a share, from an earlier projection of as little as 79 cents.

Alexion advanced 3 percent to $178.50. The drugmaker raised earnings forecast to as much as $5.20 per share for the full year, exceeding its earlier projection of as much as $5.05 and the average analyst estimate of $5.02. Third-quarter profit also beat analysts’ predictions."

thanks harry ...... not so dumb closing my short before i went to bed last night, albeit that there happened to be a further 100 point fall afterwards

there is an argument that these wild gyrations are the precursor to a clumping fall or even collapse

any view on that shortie and others of far higher trading skills than myself (at zero!)

i've accidentally gone with a small short at 16700, but that may well prove profitable during the course of the evening

How do you accidentally go with a small short ??

i had the "thingy" on screen and accidentally brushed over the "proceed" button, which activated the transaction

Lucky it was the sell button ,you would think this has to come off a bit at some point ,although if you had pressed buy you'd already be in profit.

I've placed the wrong trade before, gone long rather than short... Watched it fall all afternoon called my broker to cash in and got a nasty shock!!

What did you call him/her?

and now my short is barely out of the money :-)

Thats funny Shortie ,although not at the time i suspect !

Cynic your post 16645, I wouldn't fully agree with that, to some extent high levels of volatility will shake some investors from the market.

Fred I don't recall my exact words, but I've never since placed a large trade on the cityindex app knowing I may have trouble monitoring it in real time!!

out with +22
at least that paid for dinner even in dubai, and certainly got close to shutting down for -50/60 so shouldn't complain i guess

Dinner in Dubai with +22! You are having a laugh cynic, I reckon you are in Skegness with your mate sticky and visited the local McDonalds.

I think Mr C wagers more per pip than most of us mortals!