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 didn't say the sunlit uplands were beckoning, but as you well know, even dead cats can bounce quite high :-)

That's the reason why demo accounts are a complete waste of time for anything other than to familiarise yourself with the platform... Well said Chris, its always a completely different trade when you introduce a real risk, the secret is managing that risk!!

Exactly Shortie, I do like the platform very bright wearing sun glasses at first. Will need to study it over the Xmas hols, seems complicated but probably isn't.

The app is good also, I think for me the worst thing is having to call them to withdraw money from my account, where as you can fund online. Are you using a computer and if so are you logged into the AdvantageWeb platform? That's what I use.

IG allows you to send or withdraw money instantaneously on line

Yep Shortie Advantage Web.

Pretty hefty what the Russian central bank has done today... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-17/ruble-extends-worst-slide-since-1998-as-russia-crisis-worsens.html It won't be enough though and will only delay the inevitable... Foreign currency is what the country needs in the form of loans, without it the Rouble will be worthless. Increasing interest rates can't prompt investment with the current sanctions in place, wrong tool for the job... Like using a sander to split logs..!

5 pips in profit now, think I'll see how deep this hole goes tonight..

you worm :-)

I've a Gekko account also but have never used it. I just stick with City, over the years there has been times when I couldn't trade something as it wasn't listed but as a chart/momentum trader mainly, I'm not too bothered what I trade anyway. I also never spread stocks I'm interested in or like, that's what equities are for..

I hate these positions, 7.5pips off the money and can't be bothered to watch anymore.

Happy to be out, small loss earlier taken

YELLEN - Rate hike unlikely for next two meetings.

And the DOW +1.8% - I've just been filled short FTSE @6392.1 - I hasten to add - before I could move the limit higher!

Well I ended up short last night @6392.1, which I actually got out of flat.

Just closed a small long @6440.2 +32 from earlier.

made a nice turn on ftse long o'night - it was far too "cheap" relative to dow at the time - but slightly annoyingly cashed in my chips too early

never mind - a turn of 42 points is not to be sneezed at

shortie and skinny may disagree, but it looks to me that ftse needs to get across 6380 or even 6400 with some momentum before it starts to look right to forge further ahead

with dow, i think it's 17590 though 17500 would do for starters

Had a few small runs this morning, I think it'll be a 5 / 10 min chart and these all day... GPR/EUR playing also...

I've had one FTSE trade 6365.2 - closed 6389.2.

Options expiry shortly I believe - may be a bit more than the normal damp squib!

On edit - expiry tomorrow!