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

Don't confuse me now ..

dow
17,200 now smashed south ..... all aboard at 17,100 i guess

Gave away 50% of my profits in the last 30 mins again. Total dipstick.Should have set off to the pub at 8.30pm.

at least you walked away with profits
had i had the time and inclination, there was certainly a lot of money to be made on the dow yesterday evening, for it zipped about quite radically

with close at ~17175 it's anyone's call where next
monday could be lively again in any case as it's the first trading day of feb

i am very puzzled that ftse remains so strong whereas dow is now a tad below 17100 and down another 90+ points since friday close

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fingers poised to have a small long dow

Short and staying short still... Its a day of doing nothing on the markets but twiddling fingers and watching....

have banked my profit on ftse short

got a bit excited and went long dow a bit early at just below 17,100

cashed in too early for +50 pts, but at least it was a decent profit ..... too pre-occupied elsewhere

Another day of large swings. Certainly tests the ticker.

wonderful fun :-)
have traded dow several times today, and though only relatively small stakes and assuredly haven't bought/sold at bottom/top, it has been another good day .... and have had the discipline for once, to close all o'night

Added to FTSE short positions.

that's interesting .... while i concur that ftse has been surprisingly strong in the light of a persistently weak dow, the latter is now looking pretty perky and, imo, is due for a solid bounce if nothing else .... so i am now mildly long dow

I'm taking a slightly longer term view on the FTSE with my bets as not got the time for hourly or even day trading right now. I'm placing smaller bets than normal.

Can we have an all blue day like today for the next 4 weeks??

it's still here you blind old duffer :-)

well i'll be b*****ered couldn't see it.,,

delete

No, ticker CHAR.

found it , cheers Harry

European Central Bank said late Wednesday that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral.
"In short, the ECB has commenced cutting off Greece's cash lifelines," explained Mike O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.
Greece's new government has been suggesting different ways for it to repay its massive bailout debts to its European partners, but the ECB move shows it faces an uphill battle.
Market watchers continue to warn that a Greece exit from the eurozone is still in the cards.

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neither ftse nor (especially) the dow are currently taking any notice at all
slightly strange