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

No let up. 1000 points in a week.

why here so wrong...

ha ha well done everyone - cynic saw stan's picture 17218 - get a refund from your trainer - he saw you coming :-)
well done everyone
great stuff atm - russia / oil / usa / opec / banks et cetera - purrrrrrrrrfect
atb

nearly forgot the red bear is cornered........................without food

DOW 19,000 anybody.........????

today is looking to be very quiet as everything winds down
however, the last knockings of the year tend to be pretty lively but at some time, and possibly soon, there will be another big lurch south
nothing goes in one direction in a straight line

No shit cyners :0)

i'ld like to have a little dabble at dow today, but shall wait until i get back from my walk

meanwhile, shall try to think what stocks (sectors) are likely to benefit in 2015
advertising (WPP) is an obvious candidate ..... already hold in my sipp but may also have some separately
some of the medium oilies - say AFR, TLW and PMO - could easily be t/o targets and are not unattractive anyway at their current low prices

7th of January for a week is traditionaly the time the market sells off.....but just for one week then comes back strong the week after.

I'm staying short, have more than enough cover should the rally continue anyway..

Does anyone use tradingfloor.com

Bit of a pasting for FTSE 100 Today

No complaints here, still holding all my shorts..

Cut too early

DOW at all time high and good recent substantial gains in FTSE.

City and Institutional traders will be looking to take profits and crash the indexes also closing out for the quarter. Greece and post 2014 Q4 retail earnings could be the excuse they are looking for. There is more profit in 'saw tooth' index volatility than in straight lines indexes. (Cue shorters).

Probably crash will happen once bulk of traders and MMs are back early Jan 2015.

Cash is king ATM.

DYOR

HAb

absolutely shortie, though my current dow short was new late last week
Dow now starting to crumble, so may extend the position

:-)

Hab,

I see no evidence that City and Institutional traders will be looking to take profits and crash the indexes closing out for the quarter... Honestly this statement is just madness, to further suggest that retail earnings and Greece would be an excuse to sell is also just crazy. Every large investor balances their risk, some investors may reduce holdings in certain places as risk weighs but wouldn't just sell out to crash an index on the basis of cost. You also state that "There is more profit in 'saw tooth' index volatility than in straight line indexes.... You state the obvious here, but fail to note the increased risk of trading one over the other. As for "Cash is King" well hasn't it always been!!

DYOR and think about it..!

100 points down on FTSE 100. Santa certainly shot off early this year.

Retail earnings off to a good start with NEXT today.

Have to say Shortie and Hab have both good points.

Historicaly the market goes tits up the first week of Jan ie from around the 7th. When big boys are back.

BUT this year the big boys are back next monday after 2 weeks off..........so be carefull.

I'm done for today .. Happy and prosperous New Year to all