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

i'm currently long FTSE and a little out of the money and ditto some DOW
haven't worked out the strategy, but i expect selling after the news, but where b4 and where immediately after?

I hope you make good today.B-)
I still say 6300-6400 by Xmas.( pos 6500)

i certainly wouldn't complain with that either, though that looks supremely over-optimistic :-)

meanwhile cash DOW flirting with the next resistance ~17,665
not sure how big a hurdle that might be

I'm with pat ,i think we will gain back some of what we lost if not all of it ..

it's a big leap ..... and of faith too :-)

for fairly obvious reasons, FTSE finished well off its highs ....... nevertheless, it remained well above certain important support (or resistance) levels

DOW is also currently significantly off its best, but it is still +33 on the day

the fun of course will be in a couple of hours where it's anyone's guess which way the markets will go, and more importantly, where they will finish

Dow to finish up about 300pts.. you heard it here first -):

i certainly wouldn't be that enthusiastic
however, the current level of ~17550 is smack on the 50/200 day convergence so no a bad place to enter if you are bullish

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

and i have in a modest way at 17550.4

banked 40 points on that trade as was cooking and hadn't a hope in hell of watching
no doubt it was all like a yo-yo for a while

anyway, i still have other FTSE and DOW longs running so no grizzles from here

"Dow to finish up about 300pts.. you heard it here first -):"

Finished up 224pts which is close enough.. Alf I want a cut -):

the only cut you'll have is circumcision - unless someone got there first :-)
hope you put money with mouth too


btw, of course there is an initial kneejerk reaction across the board, but what sector(s) will be the main beneficiaries?

banks would seem an obvious choice
for very good reason, they have been out of fashion for a long time and therefore may now be deemed as good value

any other suggestions?

"but what sector(s) will be the main beneficiaries?"

The Insurance sector, when the footsie goes up so do Insurance outfits (all things being equal) as we know.

it's not a sector in which i have dabbled and confess i don't understand why that should be even if it is so

Can't remember about why, something to do with the fundies maybe but as I say I can't remember off hand.

Footsie up the Insurance Sector up, footsie down Insurance sector down.. that's how it works (again all things being equal).

..Got it -):

Size of Insurance companies relative to FT100.

The low oil price could upset the xmas rally we will have to wait and see.

Thanks Fred, could be right James but my gut feeling is it won't.

was thinking of buying back into NXT, but then realised that with unseasonally warm weather, clothing sales will have suffered ....... so why does ASC continue north?

Still not tempted by Insurance then?

They might be selling lots of short sleeved shirts and shorts cynic , Decembers the new August :)