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

Between now and the 12th May, Greece has to pay Europe 1 Billion euros.
Is the 9th of May grexit day?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-17/may-9-grexit-date

banked profit on FTSE short (6974) as it's bouncing about on 25 dma ..... but am sure i shall be shorting again before the election

If it's in the bank, it's safe.
Not unless it's a Greek bank :-)

and suddenly ftse has tumbled another 30 points to 6936

keep an eye on this .... see chart below for the obvious
50 dma being challenged, and if that is breached with any impetus, then there's a fair old drop in prospect

whoohoo!!!
out of dow short (18106) at 17,980
so that leaves dow short of 17,920 still running

Helter Skelter Day.

Need the weekend to recover.

Ftse down 100 points from this morning.

now out of dow at 17,843 with a decent profit even on that last position

small ftse short still running at 6930.5

both ftse and dow are crumbling badly

however, this is all starting to look a bit overdone and i think there will shortly be a good opportunity to make a quick turn

FTSE
out of short (+96.5) and reversed at 6833.5

If your long FTSE hope that Labour don't win :)

4% Chalked off FTSE in just over a week

Volatile markets from here on in i think .

jimmy - there'll be a great deal of manoeuvring before any pm is at least reasonably safely ensconced in number 10 .....

in the meantime, there'll be many gyrations across the markets and in both directions, and i have no intention of being greedy ..... don't forget that markets never go up or down in straight lines

en passant, i'll almost certainly take a small dow long too during the course of the day

in both instances, i (shall) have left myself plenty of room should i wish to add to those positions

I have been short FTSE this week purely because of the uncertainty over the election ,,
now out of everything, too much of a gamble .

dithered too long on dow
never mind; let's see what happens later

=========

long dow 17723.8 ...... shan't stay in for long i think :-)
and out again at 17748.5 ..... silly little game, but it'll pay for a really good dinner :-)

out of dow too early as it happens, but had to go to the fishmonger, and too risky to leave unattended for 30 mins or so

now out of ftse too at 6889.3 (+55.8) :-)

cynic- your warm today :)

thank you

i'm no whizz with charts other than the really basic ones nor other technical stuff, but i can easily keep a screen open while at the office - and still keep up with my work for clients :-)

i confess i have had a very good run of late, especially on the indices, but when they are this volatile, it isn't so difficult as long as one doesn't get too greedy

am tempted to dabble further this afternoon, but with levels as they are, i am uncertain in which direction we are likely to head