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 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

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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

they come with me CityIndex account.... very hand for making money I've found!! :-)

See if gold pops near the close Skinny, if not the market manipulators are good, but their not Carlsberg as the saying goes!!