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

markets dropping again ...... cash DOW suddenly -80 and FTSE only +12

Went long DOW 17055.

2 lots of numbers from US today, neither of which are likely to affect sentiment greatly .....

U.S. auto sales for December will reveal what a bumper year it was for automakers at 2 pm ET.
The Institute of Supply Management is due to post its economic activity index for January at 10 am ET.

I'm staying long for now and will stop out if things look nasty below 17000 . I have enough points in the tank to accept a small loss if i'm wrong .

FTSE has moved ahead again - now +33 - so with luck DOW will tag along

actually, with DOW now at 17095, i may bank this morning's profit .... shall certainly now keep a watchful eye so to do

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banked 30 points which is better than a kick in the nuts
shall now wait to see if 17,100 is (re)pierced with any impetus

cluck cluck cluck :-)

DOW now at next resistance of 17,140
and ditto FTSE at 6125

blinked and missed ....... dow suddenly roars to life (17175)

with mild bravery have gone long FTSE at 6130

all very confusing at the moment
still in the money on FTSE but not comfortable that DOW doesn't want to hold onto any gains, notwithstanding last night's awful showing (and ditto the day b4)

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decided to back out of FTSE with joke profit and shall revert to watching

Closed DOW for 62 points , like you say it doesn't seem to want to rally but might be worth another punt down lower ..

as i have written b4, i see 2016 as a year for shorting, but i don't know from what sort of level ....... as with longs, i'll probably duck in and out - and at the wrong time of course!

Strange day all in all ...

very small long DOW 17,101 ...... bit silly in many ways, but just trying to prove the level is fine to make a turn :-)

So do you hold and stay long overnight ?

maybe ..... not a good call at the moment, but small enough that i could easily afford to average down - even more stupid :-) ..... but have quite a good couple of days which has been fortunate

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sure didn't expect 17,000 to come back into play as now looks a distinct possibility

Long for the night 17060 :)

chuckle
yes i note the recovery in the last 20 minutes or whatever ..... was marginally tempted to top up but did not

limited out at pre-set +45 .... it's gone a bit higher since, but no matter
more concerned that it doesn't all fizzle away

17180 is looking worryingly stubborn ..... time will tell