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

DOW
17600 proving to be something of a battleground in both directions

At 8:30 a.m. ET, the U.S. Census Bureau will report October retail sales figures.

guess that might set the trend for the day
no idea what is expected

whatever it was and is, it looks like something of a damp squib with cash dow moving barely 10 points higher

Take your pick!

"StockMarketWire.com
US import prices fall,
US core retail sales up."

No one posting as nothing really moving, now what does that tell you about the people that post here??

dow has been unusually quiet .... it's moved in a range of about 30 points since this morning

Conversely, nothing really moving and a certain other thread prolific with it's posts. What does that tell you about the people that post there? ;o)

IHS completed.

HARRYCAT - I think you can tell that they like the sound of their own voices!!

6701 gone short

6683 position closed +18

Short Dow at 17, 670 and UKX at 6,690.

6700.5 short again

6655 closed +45

Looking oversold right now, quite a channel of support at the current level so may just be testing support pending a move higher.

surely dow's direction is likely to influence heavily

Here's Wall St...

Largely divorced atm

i'm waiting to see if dow falls through 17600 and stays there
i've made a few shillings over the last week or so by trading against the 10 minute chart, but as i'm out for a few hours, assuredly shan't be chancing my arm during that time

With the thinning cloud a Wall St short doesn't look like a bad call right now, the problem being on Wall St is that current levels do have short term support as we've seen over the past week. A break of 17550 would support a short play better.