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

Whats the usual deal with the Dow in election years chaps? up or down in general. I can't remember off hand.

Dow going down with the decorations.

2008 was not a good year for GW Bush in his last year in office.

Please we don't have another one of those.

but currently receover4ed quite smartly
DOW was down over 100 (125 springs to mind) but currently down only 45

Dow. Good trading opportunities on last day.

better things to do today, like golf this morning, then some cooking and now a bottle of ch

annoying to see dow -60 again, though i'm sure trading is very thin

i suspect the indices will make the best trading opps in 2016, but concentration usually required

A decent day to help in the new year. Apple is losing its lustre and heading to $100 on current path.

Happy New Year.

Thats my lot for 2015,

what a bad tempered end of year to dow - down 178 to a tad above 17,400

i fancy that DOW is now quite badly o'sold, so may look to place a long on monday - US will surely be open - but need to do a bit of checking first

yup - ~17,400 doesn't look at a bad place for a bounce, but just possibly it'll need to test 17,275 for real support ..... however, i would hope that the initial reaction is at least northwards, but prudence and not greed should rule

Cargo Homestore
this chain was formerly known as Carpenter's and as far as i can tell, is not owned by any larger entity

anyway, be aware that this is the first casualty of the new year, though i believe that the on-line biz will continue to trade, as least for now

what a bloodbath!
saudi/iran + china dipping further ..... indeed, no good news of any kind anywhere

Indeed but almost certainly a footsie short day.

as so often in these situations, the indices have been marked down so heavily before open, that it may well be too late, at least for today

this is not the start to the new year i was hoping for :(

Think.

At least, you are starting it.

8-)

Thats what I thought Alf but I did get in at the very open OK.

don't know what level that was, but i'm sure you made a respectable turn
i guess one could start trading at 07:00, at which time the index might have been only down say 40/60

No you would have needed to be up all night to see the decline in DOW ,
i've gone long on the FTSE .

Anyway Happy New Year to all ...

pretty brave though there may well be some small turns to be made ...... not for me; i'll sit in the bunker with my tin hat on

there looks to be a weak support forming at ~6100 but it would not surprise me atb all to see that breached this afternoon
if that breach lasted through to the close, it would become increasingly of concern