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

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 .

went long ftse just before close at 6372.5, on the basis that it cannot lag indefinitely while dow keeps heading north

undecided for how long to hold as ftse really does need to breach and hold 6400 and even now we're only at 6395 ...... may cash in before going home, and then watch more casually :-)

discretion and valour and all that :-)
cashed in at 6392.8 ...... every little helps as i have heard elsewhere

FTSE
in/out this morning for a nice 33 point profit
however, both ftse and (cash) dow have now run out of puff (for now?) and certainly 6440/6450 is proving a stern test for ftse

Patience Alf patience.

trading the indices is somewhat different from trading stocks

jimmy is rather the "whizz man" in this area, and i'm sure he'ld tell you the same

Agreed, but not if trading "in harmony" stocks which can be profitable at the same time.

i tend to hold stocks (per se) for rather longer periods

actually, i note that ftse is once again trying to break further north ..... but that dow - this morning at least - has been something of a laggard
i may therefore take a small long in dow

Change whizz for luck ! where i'm concerned ,just had a good run of late with FTSE.
I usually stick to stocks .

So what of the DOW cynic should it go up today ? as you say it's lagging behind ,although i tend to watch the DOW to judge where the FTSE is going .
Are we watching the FTSE to see where the DOW goes today ? i could come unstuck here , also can it keep rising ,i tend to go long when we have gone down .

DOW
has been very strong recently, but i missed out through fear - aka lack of balls
however, breaking north of 18,000 now looks a very real possibility and certainly that index currently seems disinclined to head far south

the strong showing overnight in f/e should do its sentiment no harm today


FTSE
tends to get dragged along by dow, but they have become somewhat decoupled of late, primarily i would have thought, because of the heavy weighting within ftse of commodity stocks and the banks

BoE inflation report out at noon tomorrow, which may affect your FTSE positions. Depends a bit on what Mark Carney has to say.

Profits taken, coffee time.

Short FTSE 6436

just made a nice little turn dow long so we may both be winners :-)

FTSE
not happy to see 6400 being challenged again on the way south