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 sure they'll be strong thus giving further excuse for markets to slump for fear of another imminent rate rise

I don't have a feeling as to which way the footsie is going over the next 2 days so happy to be mainly in cash, that may change of course.

there's clearly some quite brave people about as DOW continues its modest revival - it's now down ONLY 330 (16,575) against earlier low of -420

So stop doing a Fred and answer my question :)

If you think this market is haphazard, wait until the date of the referendum in or out,
and then the result.

-=-==-

Also, watch the value of £ tumble, if the vote is for out.

-=-===

Look at the future.

sorry jimmy but never saw your question

confess i'm not sure at all, but as i'm in front of the screen all today, i'm just watching and waiting to see how DOW reacts ....... in a silly way, it's currently looking fairly stable but still a little below 16,700

FTSE is more difficult i think because of its weighting and the still collapsing oil price
at 5950 it technically has about 100 points headroom before it runs into a serious hurdle

No problem , i went long FTSE out now with 35 points ,however i'm still holding one from 6100 so best part of 150 points down .
Been bottom fishing (or so i hope) stocks today .

Chinese markets. Friday 8th
The 5% or higher shareholders cannot sell until January 8th.
The ban lifts on Friday but people are selling ahead of the selloff in order to lock in profits. Friday trading should prove to be quite interesting.
It looks as if January 8th will take a bigger hit in Chinese markets.

i went in/out DOW just after open for +25, and just re-opened at 16,698, but all pretty scary still

quite tempted by FTSE but i've done nothing yet

that's o'night tonight of course ....... now that is frightening

Sweaty pants time.
Or just let it go, and wait till morning.

depends if you can watch the screen

jimmy's really good at reading the markets - FTSE in particular - and i have followed him in at 5947
unless i act b4hand, i'll either close it out when DOW shuts, or leave it with a trailing stop or somesuch

DOW long is now nicely in the money from 16,698 and as it was such a small postion, i'm considering enlarging it

perhaps that's all a bit greedy :-)

in fact, i'm currently working with close stops, so have just shut DOW for +47, but i'll look to get back in later

haven't decided what to do about FTSE which is now just slightly in the money

Well as it stands now I really can't get a feel about the Footsie so will continue to sit on my hands.

closed my FTSE long at just better than b/e ..... there was a respectable profit just a little earlier, but got too greedy

That's a compliment i'm sure i don't deserve cynic ! I'm better at buying large amount of stock for small movement (which is what i mainly concentrate on) .

However anything that you leave overnight in this climate i would definitely have a trailing stop on as i did with DOW the other night and made 38 points rather than wake up to a large deficit which is exactly what i did this morning with the FTSE ,still running that one 150 points to the bad ,my fault..

jimmy - read this ...... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/chinese-hedge-funds-face-forced-sales-as-top-manager-plans-exit

strangely, chinese futures are quite well up, but that article sure looks very scary

On the same page worth looking at this ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/global-markets-at-the-beginning-of-a-crisis-george-soros-says

Thu 7 Jan 2016

(ShareCast News) - US jobs data will take centre stage on Friday as the Federal Reserve looks for signs of further recovery in the labour market as it schedules its next interest rate rise.
The non-farm payrolls (NFP) report is expected to show US employers added 200,000 jobs in December, compared to 211,000 in November, while the unemployment rate is forecast to remain at 5%.

Analysts predict average hourly earnings will have risen 2.8% in the year to December following a 2.3% increase a month before.

"Many services industries are adding jobs at a healthy pace," HSBC observed.

"Construction employment has also been growing solidly, reflecting a pick-up in both residential homebuilding and public sector construction this year."

However, other sectors of the economy are not performing as strongly, including manufacturing industries which have been hurt by sluggish global growth and a strong US dollar, while the energy sector has also shed jobs to cope with the oil price slump.

Friday's figures follows the ADP's private payroll report on Wednesday which showed employers added 257,000 jobs in December, beating forecasts of 198,000, after the prior month's 211,000.

The Fed last month decided to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade, as the labour market and economy improved. The central bank looks set to increase rates further this year, provided the recovery continues.

Next week we get the turn around.