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

You want the Daily Brent Crude (Feb) 06/Jan if on IG.

i can get WTL (Feb) on IG easily enough too ..... i've switched my watchlist to that

wow! ... after a scary start, looks as though i may have called it right

all looking strong this morning EXCEPT oil which is down again to $47.65

i've banked yesterday's dow long profit, though a tad early
the market looks as though it's trying to bounce, but it's not very convincing, not least i guess because oil remains at ~$47.50 though i see it did dip to $46.81

i'll endeavour to sit on my hands :-)

I'm short FTSE 6398.5 with a cautious bet.

that was bold ..... i actually took a modest long at 6410 ..... oil is now on a bounce, so if maintained, a decent follow-through on the current bounce on dow is also on the cards

And there's me looking at 6190 as a potential for the FTSE now.

double post

going out for a few hours so closed ftse at 6440 :-)

i see 6450 is looking to be quite a tough hurdle ..... hmm

Strange day today, I've had a few small profits when I've had time to trade but its difficult as not really any momentum either way. The hourly chart below shows the initial 50DMA breakout and also hints that we'll be back under this moving average very soon. So for now, I'm holding a couple of cautious shorts until further downwards momentum builds where I'd expect a fall to 6190 ish..

dow
17560 continues to be a stumbling block
it's been challenged 2/3 times and again just now, but currently proving a bit too tough

however, there seems to be a bit of momentum today, and just possibly that level will be breached - northwards of course

.

closed ftse long at 6497 as 6500 is looking quite tough to hold

shall now watch and wait to see which way we go next
my feeling is south, but i'm not that brave

I got caught by the FED and expectation that the ECB will finally launch some kind of QE... Seeing as recent rallies have been sold into I expect this to be no differenet.

cynic - you have mentioned in the past, not so much recently have noticed that you have (in your words) a guru to guide you re-trading Dow and UKX, are you still being guided by him or her or trading of your own bat now? I steer clear nowadays of even trying to trade either. Respect to you and shortie.

unfortunately he moved to pastures new several months ago where some ridiculous fee is charged for access

Well good on you for not following him.

Think I'll take losses and move on, being underfunded not an option in positions and I refuse to pay money into my account..

Been a long time since I played with a short stack, oh well, should be fun..!