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

Ha i'm short FTSE 6358 not expecting too many points .

Out 6333.

chuckle
i bought FTSE at 6347 and back in DOW at 17,861 ...... but banked some decent stuff earlier

I'm not sure i would want to be long DOW right now after the week it's had but hope your right .

i can keep watching, but certainly don't expect to get the 80+ i scored earlier
20 or so will do this time around unless it gets on a surge once more

You going to hold DOW over the weekend ?

as long as it holds above 17,805
not entirely sure, though i hate giving back some of my profit

grump grump
out but gave back 2/3 of the earlier profit
never mind

A good week for indices. You just never know.

DOW finished above 17,805 which could be a solid indicator for next week
FTSE dropped a bit, but cash is still a tad above 6,300 so not all bad either

When you step back and look at the long term charts. FTSE 100 does not look very good. Trade what you see and not what you think is the only way I get around the minefield. Have a good weekend. CD

i have a VERY small short running DOW which went into the money very comfortably this morning
i'm quite inclined to extend that, as now DOW has dropped below 17,748 it could easily drop a further 60 points or more - ie to ~17,680

.

harry - cash DOW is currently 17,725!

Yes. It seems the US is less concerned with micro events in Europe than we are.
Amazing that the Greek crisis seems to have been totally forgotten now. Very short memories within the financial world!

bits to watch in usa, the first report being by far the more important

A second estimate for U.S. GDP in the third quarter will post at 8:30 am ET.

At 10 a.m., the Consumer Conference Board will update the Consumer Confidence Index with November's number. The index dipped in October after reaching an four-month high in September.

FTSE - if you/we're lucky there's a support about at 6228 .... if that fails, then it's down to ~6200

DOW - now hovering around a supposed support of 17,685

More downside before the Christmas Cheer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

US third quarter growth revised higher
The US economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter, with the strong momentum likely to further bolster the Federal Reserve's case for an interest rate hike next month.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.1 per cent annual pace, up from the 1.5 per cent rate reported last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday in its second GDP estimate for the June-September period.

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no real reaction from cash dow as yet, but it ought to mean a bounce off the above support - or at least i think so

a modest little smile from this quarter :-)