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

FTSE
changed my mind and banked nice profit at 6238

DOW
very small short running from 16,687 ...... slightly wrong call at the moment

Thought you might like this cynic ,as they say bit of a coin toss tomorrow ,probably just as well to bank your FTSE profit .
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Wed 16 Sep 2015

(ShareCast News) - The market is divided on whether the Federal Reserve will on Thursday announce an increase on interest rates following a mixed batch of economic data.
While economic growth has picked-up and unemployment has fallen, wages and inflation remain somewhat weak.

Wednesday data showed the consumer price index remained at 0.2% year-on-year in August, as expected, unchanged from the previous month but well below the Fed's 2% target.

Global pressures are also likely to be taken into consideration by the Fed, particularly the impact of the slowdown in China.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has trimmed its global forecast due to the further worsening of the outlook for many emerging market economies. The OECD cut its global growth forecast for 2015 to 3.0% from the 3.1% it predicted in June, though both the US and Euro-zone were revised upwards.

"The Federal Reserve faces a difficult set of economic data to digest, because it is very much pointing in different directions," said Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

"The outcome of tomorrow's meeting is a coin toss, and the stock market reaction is likewise unpredictable. Investors who make snap decisions in anticipation of the policy decision in the US are therefore exposing their portfolio to a high degree of random chance, so it's best to watch this one from the sidelines."

Khalaf said falling commodity prices and turmoil in emerging markets have pushed expectations back for a rate rise.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "Markets are currently pricing in only a 25% chance of a rate hike at this stage but they have been wrong when it comes to the Fed on many occasions in the past, so I expect some of this caution that we're seeing in the markets to persist."

i've fiddled about a bit and banked some small profits .... currently i have a ftse long from 6240 which may not be the brightest, but we'll see

more or even fairly inclined to short dow ahead of the fed

now short both ftse (6190) and dow (16722)

U.S. Federal Reserve rate decision. What time will there be news ?

19:00

managed to encash a small FTSE profit, but getting a bit thumped on dow .... shall let that stand

Well the DOW'S turned your way .

sure has :-) ....... glad i held my nerve

for bulls, concerning that FTSE has dropped back below 6,200 (yet) again and DOW below 16,700

banked part profits, far too early as it happens, but never complain of such :-)

on FTSE, 6140 currently providing support, but if wall street comes in as weak as currently indicated, then it is surely unlikely to hold

wow!
was just contemplating shorting FTSE and suddenly it has plunged through that 6140 level, so a bit late

still, i have DOW short running juicily after least evening's little scare

If the FTSE gets Whacked again i shall try going long ,should have done it earlier in the week.

i believe that below 6129 there is gaping abyss, so be careful
certainly would not be inclined to be long over w/e, though there may be a bounce before close today

It went as low as 6017 on Tues i think ,unfortunately i couldn't be by a screen.

obvious level to buy is 6,000 or a tiny bit above

have banked all dow profit but shall be looking to get back in, probably short again

bugger!
thought i'ld been prudent, but DOW has now dumped nearly a further 100 points to under 16,400

This week I've been trading the FTSE-100 using 7ema/20ema crossovers on the 5-minute chart (and toggling the 1-minute chart but not acting on that), using the live free charts at IG.com where orders and stops can be placed on the chart.

Just looking to grab 15 points a couple of times a day during tea breaks. So far it is working much better than I expected, making a profit every day.

Lend us a bob!

for the gas meter?