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

nope ..... the all clear hasn't yet sounded

DOW
currently down very nearly 300 at 17,280

Recession being priced in for next year.

this morning's rally looks to have petered out very quickly

Wednesday could be important as to which way we go.

all totally unpredictable
this morning, it looked as though the markets "felt" oversold and rallied nicely without being silly ...... that lasted about 2 hours and now everything looking ever more bleak

Oil down again ! , it does feel as though we have somewhere near bottomed out .

Talk on Bloomberg from analysts and 'experts' seem to agree on circa $30 pb as the bottom for Brent.
Even the pumping nations have to service their debt, so the theory is that paying off the interest has to be achievable at the very least. Less than $30 pb would put that at risk.

This won't have helped


Last week, Third Avenue Management shut down its $788m ‘Focused Credit Fund’ – a fund investing in corporate bonds.
2517

nor this ......
Oil tumbles towards crisis-era lows
Oil is close to surpassing its low hit during the financial crisis, with Brent crude falling below $37 a barrel in Monday trading.


nor this ......
Wells Fargo warns of ‘stresses’ in its energy portfolio
The head of corporate banking at Wells Fargo, the biggest bank in the world by market capitalisation, has warned of “stresses” in its energy portfolio, as the ongoing slump in the price of oil begins to weigh heavily on servicers and producers

From the same article as post 19087

Much of the problem is down to stress in the energy sector. As the oil price has fallen, more and more energy companies have been struggling. Indeed, energy trader John Arnold told CNBC last week that he expects “half of US energy companies to go bankrupt next year if oil prices do not rebound”.
2517

but i'ld like to think that coutts have it right .......

This past year saw some big swings in financial markets, driven more by sentiment than by any significant change in the economic fundamentals. We think any lingering gloom is likely to clear up as we head into 2016.
While perceptions often drive markets in the short run, our long-term investment approach is to look for economic reality to reassert itself. For example, last year’s big plunge in oil prices was widely regarded as a sign of a sharp slowdown in global growth, but we saw it as good news for the world’s consumers, who tend to spend the windfall from lower fuel bills.
As we explain in our title feature ‘Reasons to be cheerful’, we think global growth will be surprisingly strong in 2016. We maintained our preference for equities over bonds when it wasn’t popular to do so, and we think this will pay off in due course.

both ftse and dow are all over the place with dow in one 10-minute spell covering a range of about 170 points!

somewhat worrying to see FTSE now having a peek at the important 5900 level

It's (not) beginning to look like Christmas! Not yet anyway. Maybe worth waiting till Thursday see how the markets react after Fed decision Wednesday.

Don't worry Chris he'll be here soon.........

if there's a bounce coming, the elastic is sure being stretched hard

Lets hope so ,no let up at present .

FTSE is a total disaster area (5875) and DOW not far behind (17170)

there's an alleged DOW support at 17150 which has been hit just a few minutes ago, but it's a brave man who can call the bottom

Alf, the bottom will be hit on this Friday the 18th (or before) it's Triple Witching day as well.. I know about these things -):

i took a tiny dow long at 17148 and made 30 points as hadn't the time to keep watching, nor probably the balls had i done so ....... anyway, dow is currently 17285(!!) which has dragged cash ftse back above 5900

==============

i'm hoping wednesday and a us rate rise will provide some upward stimulus ...... at the very least, a rise would remove the unknowns and indicate that the consensus is that the us economy is sufficiently strong to warrant same