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

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Oh dear This dammed thing didn't work so I kept hitting post 9 times it would seem sorry :o(

go to edit post ...... delete and just substitute wih fullstop and repost ... at least it tidies things up

At least you weren't trying to place a trade, could have been costly.

Thanks Cynic. Very true Spitfire Even worse than the time I put an extra 0 on an order!!!!!!!!

Lol, i remember the first time i traded shares on CFD as apose to indicies - i bought 10 shares in Southern cross group... needless to say was gutted when i realised that when they had gone up 5p it was worth 50p...!

UK Producer Prices +0.9%, not good considering we're expecting higher CPI tomorrow. Wachovia news terrible, was expecting the sector to react more than it has so far.

both dow and ftse amazingly robust all things considered

I figure CPI should come in 3%+ in which case a knock on consumer confidence should follow. Still running my Wall St Future for May, under 100 points from the money and counting on a good fall. If not an expensive lesson come the 18th May if I've not closed before hand.

Thank you to whoever it was that introduced me to scalping. have been doing a bit today with small amounts and have been reasonably successful - thank you.

I also closed my long outstanding short this morning at a small loss - but it was much much better than it was a few days ago.

Lesson learnt - let the trend be your friend.

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I may join you tomorrow with a little scalping, the problem I have is that if the weather is nice, I hate sitting at the computer too long. And if a take computer outside I can't see the screen.

ftse seem strong against other indices, I think it was better than expected interest figures, so now market is hoping for another cut next month.

It felt like FTSE wanted to head higher and so it has proved, up 144 as I type. Had a Long running from this morning, but out before DOW opened for 4 points, I never anticipated it to be so strong, but plenty of results out today.

I was thinking about a short on FTSE at 5960 for a target of 15 points, very lucky I didn't but in my defence DOW was begining to look stronger. Could be heading higher now, but the queston is, at what point to go short?

Hit button twice. oops.....

Depends how your playing Spitfire, a rolling bet could well cost you daily but has a cheaper margin to maintain. I prefer a future, a May Future against the the FTSE 100 would probally yeild good results at over 6000. The margins however at twice the price of a rollling bet and waiting could well prove costly if you don't take profits as they appear. Each to their own though trading spreads or CFDs, I will only say try and match your target with the term of the investment. By this I mean simply if you think the FTSE will be lower this month at any time why trade a daily rolling bet.