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

Its just more of the same old to be honest, the DOW's overbought and data is soft so there will be slips until someone commits to stimulus... Eyes are on the ECB but China and Japan could do more to stoke growth... Lets face it though, politicians are so hell bent on growth they don't understand that following growth an economy will naturally take some time to consolidate and settle... The same as a company, that hits market saturation and those super earnings level off... Nothing to worry about but ultimately if earnings slow down as a course of saturation then it'll drive both prices and inflation down just as we're seeing... simples to anyone not fixated on growth!!

NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. and European stocks fell on
Monday after weak Chinese and Japanese data stoked worries about
slowing global economic growth, while oil prices sank to
five-year lows on expectations of oversupply into 2015.
The euro sagged to 2-1/2-year lows against the dollar after
European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny's warned of a
"massive weakening" of the euro zone economy and said the
purchase of state bonds could provide a boost. His comments came
just days after Standard and Poor's downgraded its credit rating
on Italy, the bloc's third largest economy, to a level just
above junk status.
Nowotny's remarks raised bets in the bond market for a fresh
round of ECB stimulus in the first quarter of 2015.
ID:nR1N0RP01W
Data out of Asia also took a toll on sentiment. Japan
reported its third-quarter economic contraction was deeper than
previously thought, while China's unexpectedly weak import data
signaled slowing demand in the world's second biggest economy.
ID:nL3N0TM2GJ ID:nL3N0TS2FK
The disappointing economic developments abroad overshadowed
Friday's robust U.S. jobs report, which revived bets the Federal
Reserve might consider ending its near-zero interest rate policy
in mid-2015. ID:nL2N0TO1V4
Even so, Wall Street stocks proved to be fairly resilient.
"The other side of it, too, is many of these other countries
are taking some efforts to stimulate as well. People are looking
at is as temporary, and somewhere down the line as those
economies get stronger, everybody will be in pretty good shape,"
said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook
Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois
In early U.S. trading, the Dow Jones industrial average
.DJI fell 5.52 points, or 0.03 percent, to 17,953.27, the S&P
500 .SPX slipped 0.88 point, or 0.04 percent, to 2,074.49, and
the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC shed 9.00 points, or 0.19 percent,
to 4,789.75. .N \
The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 fell 0.6 percent to 1,396.79,
while Toyko's Nikkei .N225 eked out a 0.08 percent gain. .EU
.T
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks
shares in 45 nations, fell 1.21 points, or 0.28 percent, to
423.54.
In the currency market, the euro fell to a more than
2-1/2-year low against the greenback at $1.2247 before
rebounding to $1.2292 in U.S. trading EUR= .
The dollar also retreated against the yen and other major
currencies as traders booked some profits on the greenback's
recent gains linked to expectations the Federal Reserve might
raise interest rates sooner in 2015 than had been expected.
The dollar was down 0.5 percent at 120.80 yen JPY= .
Bets on a fresh round of ECB stimulus in the first quarter
of 2015 helped boost the prices of U.S. and German government
bonds. Benchmark 10-year U.S. yields fell 2.29 percent
US10YT=RR and 10-year Bund yields declined to 0.72 percent
DE10YT=RR . US/ GVD/EUR
In the energy market, Brent crude LCOc1 fell more than $2
a barrel to a five-year low of $66.35 on predictions that
oversupply would keep building until next year after OPEC
decided not to cut output. O/R
Spot gold prices XAU= edged up 0.07 percent at $1,192.44
an ounce on some safe-haven demand on the modest losses in U.S.
and European equity prices.

had a little short dabble on dow (16898) and put limit on as well as stop, and limit hit for 50 points while i was cooking .... nice start to the evening :-)

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

i see the support at 17815 kicked in though i missed it
now what?

I hope you meant 17898!

wouldn't have minded had i hit the limit at 50 below :-)

still holding old dow shorts that are still comfortably horrid(!) but much less so than they were :-)

Well my DAX short at 10033 is nicely in the money, no need to take any action I feel as if momentum builds I'll be onto an even bigger winner.

Dax closed 9945 as back within support tolerance... +88

what news that caused cash dow to spike down heavily once more?
i think there's a support at this new level (17730), but can't recollect where the next target below lies

No doubt the slump in crude and energy stocks have caused the fall. Sold too early on the DAX but a nice hefty profit all the same. Note today's Aluminium and Zinc prices on the London Metals exchange, united-co-rusal-results

and suddenly dumped another 40 points to +/-17700

Just setting up for the Santa rally late next week?

I do hope so, give me volatile any day of the week..!

i know GF is a believer in that, but i am not convinced

==========

i can see many reasons NOT to be bullish but things rarely go as expected ...... for sure the world economies have been very badly hit for the last several months as is indicated by storage depots across the world being crammed to bursting with idle kit

the collapse in crude prices is also something of a double-edged sword and of course the price for basic hard commodities has been beaten to a pulp

in the uk itself, the looming general election is unsettling enough and with the strong likelihood of another weak gov't in prospect, and certainly one without an overall majority (its hue matters not), why should ftse have any reason to be perky?

Blimey DAX has motored down 100 pts since I cashed in... Today's movement is looking like nothing short of manipulation, but two can play that game!..

Lets see, tempted to go long...

Told you it was manipulation Shortie. Come friday xmas bounce is on.

Well it's sure got all the characteristics of it... FTSE is explained to some degree but not the rest of the markets and the fall appears overdone.. Too much money leaving the table without cause right now... Maybe we'll see a jump in gold nearer the close..

Take a look at gold over the last 2 days!

Shortie where do you get those excelent charts from please?

dow now down about 215 to 17645 ...... shame my short isn't larger, but of course i didn't have the nerve (balls!) to extend it earlier today or even an hour ago