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

Lol, relax, there's always another trade! I've been busy today also and only made a few points...

Welcome back Alf, hows the scrap metal trade in town these days?

quite difficult it must be admitted
as i've mentioned before, the collapse of oil prices has wreaked havoc with international trade
it'll all settle and resolve in due course

i wonder if we'll see dow tracking all the way back to 16400 again
my own gut feel is that a rally, or at least a decent bounce is imminent, but shall probably sit out this evening's action

had a little dow long dabble at 17600 as that looks to be supporting ok

and out (20:18) for +45
that'll do nicely so shall go and keep beloved company :-)

crude continues inexorably south
i am therefore somewhat surprised to see FTSE holding its ground to better, not least because it had a relatively strong showing yesterday

6532 gone short, as this ranged flag narrows it'll break out either way but I think profit taking will see me right for a few points.

dow
17900 was a step too far, and now drifting south once more
i guess the q is whether or not 17800 will be breached again

i've a couple of small shorts running - 17803 and 17871 - so may cash in the higher one and let the other run

I've managed some 20pts profit trading today, lets hope things improve over the rest of the week otherwise I'll be wasting more time on the 'talk crap thread'..

first one done at 17782.9 so that approx +88 :-)
off home so banked 2nd for +20

may have a little play later this evening

Long FTSE @6457.8.

it would have been nice to have been greedy for once :-)
now what's that i always preach about never going broke if you bank a profit?

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good call skinny .... well done

the dow looks as though it had a very quiet day, showing a loss of <30, but that disguises yet another roller-coaster day where it rose above 17,900 then fell below 17500 and finally settled a little above 17600

Morning guys, blimey, should have held my positions...

i have a modest ftse short from yesterday at 6467, but certainly did not expect that dump o'night

I've just gone long on FTSE, 6443.. Have to say didn't expect the dump either but haven't looked at it since leaving work yesterday.

6472 I'm out

6476 gone short

was too busy on the phone and missed taking a ftse profit (have left running) but now have modest long in dow which is just in the money

i wonder if today will be like yesterday with dow .... hairy scary, but plenty of opportunities to make money in both directions

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prob end up trying to be too clever by half :-)

The DOWs your baby, I don't tend to play there and don't follow it...