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

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

Everyone is done for the day!!!
"The UK market closed at 12.30pm and is next open for trade on Friday."

Yep, Happy New Year all, enjoy!! I have a few charts to analyse before I head home...

hi shortie; guess like me your enjoying today's dow performance :-)

Happy New Year to all Traders from my Lair.

Plenty of movement this morning.

Hi Cynic, I'm just short on the FTSE and Dax right now... Very nice and shiny blue!

Dax closed, nice start to the new year..

HNY shortie ..... i banked most of my dow short juicy profit before closedown on NYE, but the remainder are very nicely in the money

HNY Cynic also... Just want to see some of those short term support numbers get eroded now to confirm a short position. Euro also looking good, a run to 1.32 I think we could see so I'm hoping to play that also.

+206 points today. Had enough now..

well done m8 .... that should see you right for a fortnight in the caribbean next month

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i see dow has suddenly turned south again, so my remaining dow shorts now showing +130 (profit!), but i think i'll leave those running

you bet with much bigger numbers than me - and you're also much more clever :-)

Should have left the last Dax position but I can't be bothered to watch the timings anymore... I've just pulled out of buying a house following survey and builders quotes so have already spent most of today's earnings anyway and what with Christmas I'll be more likely to enjoy a fortnight on the Isle of Wight with what's left... Oh well, lets see what next week brings.

parkhurst?

Cynic not sure I do play with bigger numbers than you, I edit out my profits before posting and only advise pts up or down...

I think I could do a little better than Parkhurst... I was thinking http://www.isleofwightcampers.co.uk/

more importantly ......
dow is now dropping quickly, but ftse is still holding up easily ..... feels wrong so may go short ftse too

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just done so at 6537.8

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my usual dow punt is $50 p/p ..... sometimes i get excited and double that
.... ftse is typically £20 p/p

don't tell fred about taking a campervan on iow, for otherwise he'll want to join you, and you might then wish you were indeed in parkhurst!

see your well out of my league trading that much a point Cynic.. I don't really have a usual amount, it depends on how strong the signal is and how much time I have... All my bets are GBP though, non of this dollar crap for me...

Who's Fred, I assume the old duffer on the Talk to Yourself thread? I don't think I've ever had much to do with him but all the same I'll keep quiet about the IOW campers..