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

Haven't tried the dow yet too scary

/
currencies go in cycles ..... i never predicted that would now strengthen in a straight line to say 1.45, but my own view, sahred by some but certainly not necessarily even the majority, is that is oversold and is overstrong ..... in this very brief window, i have proved right, but as they, "That am peanuts!" ..... unless things go badly wrong, i may well hold this position for some time .... or, as is my wont, try to be smart arse by taking a profit in the hope of buying again a bit cheaper

/Euro
I had thought the same as Explosive, and for the same reason. But Cynic did get it right yesterday, though the Euro has strengthened overnight. I wouldn't be surprised if it went back to 80p+

interesting to see whether or not i shall prove to be the smartarse and thus make your arse smart!

how do these indices work ? Appreciating the volitility that has occurred since ive been away for 4 weeks, but the FTSE is higher than when i left however the vast majority of my holdings including about another 30 on my watchlist appear to have fallen by more than 10% - 15%. Well if nothing else At least the snow was good

Have wondered about that myself sj everything seems to be falling but the Ftse is rising?

Miners

firstly, i would hazrd a guess that your portfolio has a preponderance of minnows, or AIM-listed at best - these are always likely to be mosre volatile and/or clobbered in a weak market.

secondly, the FTSE is heavily overweighted with (real!) oilies and miners and financials - financials have recovered well of late and of course oils and miners remain stratospheric

Cynic's right..at the moment you can't go wrong with mid-weight oilies at the moment..(as long as they are producing) !

A large reversal on all main indices has just happened. Any ideas !

GE results miss estimates

From another thread , General Electric Co earning lower than anticipated ?

minus 57 now..was plus 38 this morning...crikey !

GE figures were horrid .... big Q is whether or not 12450/12500 can be held

.........have just started to use spread bets instead of CFD's - thanks to your advice here last week.

So much simpler and I am not getting clobbered with fees either - so thank you to those who pointed me in the right direction.

And with my maiden bet - I caught the downswing in the FTSE and exited almost at the bottom - so am feeling quite chuffed with myself - for a change

Now who can I give it back to ?? MMmmmmm

Bhunt I know that Etrade do ftse spreadbets for 1 point most others seem to be 2

Quite a lot of vitriol directed at ECB for leaving rates unchanged in Telegraph, suggesting that they are burying their heads in the sand and may destroy the unity of the eu by trying to control inflation. Their take is that this period of inflation and stellar commodity prices is a temporary spike and will soon resolve, presumably taking oil and miners with it. Also heard yesterday that a lot of mortgages are 30 year fixed in the states, which would infer that those holders would only lose out by US cuts through higher inflation. Not sure when Euro/GBP will reverse but not sure if it is now .8000 is a nice round figure though

Watchout for pullback time possibly on monday morning again for ftse...dow not doing well !

Many British expats that retired to France and Spain must be feeling the pain with the euro so strong.

not as badly as those who bought "illegal" houses in Spain and are now having them demolished ...... in our biz, we have an "in" joke that we don't deal with Spain for 10 years and then remember exactly why not!