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

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

phew!
saw the exit poll so dumped and reversed my small ftse short
tit-for-tat, i'm showing a minor loss, but that may well swing into profit later

I cut yesterday at midday. Sat on my hands.

Wild gyrations this morning. Trying to trigger stops!!!!!!!!!

i just got greedy in the late afternoon and tried to be too clever :-)
banked plenty during the day, even if nowhere near as much as had i had foresight - eg on dow

have banked some juicy profits on Regus and Next as the market will be frothy for a while
i'll now be looking to see where to re-invest

DOW
heading towards 18,200 at which point i'll place a small short
all time high is just below 18,300 and i don't expect to hit let alone breach that within the next few days and perhaps weeks

yummy yummy! ......
shorted ftse last night at 7004 after dow close and am already short dow from 18181

neither are large positions, but more than compensating for the overall market drop

Why the capitulation this morning?

over-excitement last week :-)

Apparently a 'Sell-off' in the Bond market and fears of a Greek exit.....again.

now out of both short positions with very acceptable profits, albeit nowhere near the levels that had been on offer
however, very much still smiling

===============

am now tempting fate with a small DOW long at 18,095.4 as the fall seems to have petered out and a rally, even if brief, quite possibly on the cards
we shall see

closed at 18183.8 (+88.4) as dow still refuses at the 18,200 hurdle

Preparing for the short opportunity. Most probably next week now. No positions open.

Dow stuck in treacle at these levels.

i too have no index positions at the moment

bit slow off the mark, so easily missed out when dow started to drop, but have just placed a small short at 1264.5 ...... hopefully not too bad a call, but we'll see

Had a touch first thirty this morning on FTSE 100.

Need some news as there is no movement at all on Dow.

.

bugger!
got involved with other things and failed to short FTSE ..... never mind, very decent profit on dow short which i have now banked