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

liquidated the balance of my Dow long positions late last night and this morning
that leaves me with just a small FTSE long

given the huge rises over the last couple of days and w/e looming, i wouldn't be at all surprised to some weakness on both sides of the pond

DOW
some decent profit taking :-) but possibly no great pullback
shall try to keep my itchy fingers still

You can be right and wrong in the space of minutes.

Come back in September pondering where we go from here!!!!!!

Sounds like most of my trading Claret !!

well certainly the last couple of days have been very kind to me, so i have no complaints

hilary, who is pretty expert at these things and probably makes a living in these fileds, reckons i should have some magic trading software
as i am now AWFULLY OLD and try to only play at this thing, such sophistication would be way beyond me and i'm sure not worth the (my) investment anyway

despite hilary's derision, i'm happy enough to play this silly game using the 10 minute charts, and if i'm concentrating etc etc, it seems to work well enough

August was testing and I am down over the month. There you go. Just called it wrong.

Don't be downhearted CD. I believe you are in the majority and that's why income from Spreadbetting isn't taxed as most folks make a loss over a 12 month period......and presumably that's why the SB firms are profitable!

ah but CFD income is
clearly one is determined as betting and the other isn't!

Just my opinion, S/B and CFD's are useful tools. I have learned from bitter experience that I lack patience (bottle) to trade Dow, Ftse etc day trading so I avoid it like the plague.
Horses for courses etc. Doesn't mean I don't dabble on occasions for a quick scalp, but I recognised early enough that basically I'm shit at it and lack the necessary discipline.

Trading stocks both long and short using S/B, for me different ball game altogether.
cynic's forte is trading Dow good luck to him.

I agree CC. I don't have the discipline either to stick to a trading strategy, so I stay well clear.

cynic's forte is fucking it up :-)
however, even a blind pig will sometimes find an acorn

August normally a bit sedate with not much to trade around. Yep been caught out this year.

Year to date I am up so its dust myself down time learn from mistakes and go again next week.

Enjoy the Weekend.

FTSE
banked a diddy 20 point profit at 6230.4, but it'll pay for quite a reasonable dinner for 2 in london :-)

Junk food or à la carte?

def alc and at relatively high end

I hope that the Eastern European young lady of your choice appreciates fine dining then! ;o)

Are you suggesting a ladyboy for cyners harry?? ;)

this morning's markets are looking pretty soggy, and cash DOW is currently -135 at a fraction over 16,500 and cash FTSE -25 at 6195

a breather is not unexpected, but uncertain which way is the more likely in the next few days

CD,

Look back over August and question why your decisions were right, or wrong, or if your trading approach could be modified. Such as stop losses too wide or too close or SBs are too large against your pot.

Also, if not doing so, consider SBs for hedging against portfolio in periods like August.

PS, if you remember hesitating before what subsequently turned out to be a "wrong" decision, try to work out why you hesitated and why you ignored your own warnings system!