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

strange one that today ......
earlier, cash dow was showing a decent 40 point rise, but that evaporated in "real time" and i think it was off about 25 points for a few minutes

meanwhile, ftse is just plain crappy

Dow turned positive, prepare for lift off.. or not.

played with the idea of going long again, but lacked balls .... or so it seems at the moment

dow continues to press north - now +40 at 17,793 - and after-hours-ftse is being dragged up almost reluctantly in its wake

Well would you believe it.. Yes -):

but a bad final hour in usa saw dow shedding plenty and finishing down 90 points at 17,663 which is around an alleged level
hmm! .... hope that was just end month profit-taking but makes me nervous for monday

StockMarketWire.com
UK's manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to a 16-month high of 55.5 in October, Markit/CIPS data showed, well above forecasts for 51.3 and from 51.5 in September.

these markets are almost impossible to read and thus very dangerous indeed
gut feel this morning was that the correct position was to be short, but this has now been turned on its head - not that i would want to now go long either!

overall, i confess i am very gloomy indeed

as i have said before, we deal in the movement of chemicals worldwide, so we are very much at the sharp end ...... business is currently as bad as i have ever known it, though this is exacerbated by the chinese manufacturers dumping equipment on an already sated market, offering "special" deals - eg any payment deferred for 2 years

Bulk chemical industry I know nothing about, but presumably you are at the mercy of Fx fluctations, cyclical demand and warehouses full of unsold inventory? Almost sounds like the oil industry!!!

Ah China again eh?

But cheer up Alf, a chance for you to get some work done for a change -):

the rally was very short-lived indeed!

I am short both Dow and FTSE 100

harry - forex is not greatly influential in that $ is the international currency for most parts .......

as far as i can determine, the market for many petro-chems and similar has collapsed and many refineries find it barely worthwhile to produce as they cannot find buyers for the end product
that's a bit of a simplification, but it'll do

Start making Uranium cynic and become a Bond Villain .

DOW currently sits right on the cusp of an important support/resistance

phew!
thank goodness i wasn't tempted to do anything this morning, as for sure i would have gone short

FTSE has just about struggled back up through a decent resistance/support (6756), but in general, it still refuses to get its skates on regardless that DOW is romping along once more

i guess it's primarily due to the FTSE components with its weighting in banks and heavy-duty miners, but one can but hope :-)

DOW
in theory, we could now be heading back to 17,800 and more, but i admit nervousness after friday's late collapse

DOW roaring once again and over 17,860 ...... 18,000 next stop though i have no position here at all ...... lack of nerve!

FTSE remains reluctant to follow suit, which is pretty dull

Had 3 longs on FTSE today got out and tried to get back in lower ,made a couple of points , now it moves after hours ,wouldn't want to go long now .