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

decided to bank ftse profit

not that it will, but dow could easily recover 100 points in the blink of any eye, for the same reason that it has lost 300+ points - no reason at all!

Gone long ftse 100.

500 point decline from 8am this morning until close Dow 30. Too much!!

Gone long Dow.

I bet it puts back on some weight in the night ,risky trade but i have gone long .

Snap Claret !!

Who know what happened today.

Oil at these lows will soon be seen as a positive,

ISM is a bigger worry for me than Oil

ISM?

Closed DOW long this morning + 110 .

good job you got out quickly as dow now only up about 35

This is a mad market for sure..

indiscriminate bloodbath as everyone (including me) heads for the exit

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

logic says that there has to be a serious bounce, but we have been saying that for a while now, but still the markets head sharply south .....almost like the bursting dotcom bubble but on a market-wide scale

so what would be good defensive stocks in this bleak climate?

traditionally, this has been supermarkets and banks, both of which sectors stink
so then there are pharmas - GSK perhaps
and on the entertainment front, SKY or ITV may not be bad bets
tobacco is usually solid, so take your pick between BATS and IMT

now i get stuck!

Pharma & fixed line telecoms certainly on the list.
Possibly hospitality (IHG etc).
Not sure about shipping but BMS has held up quite well and divi still attractive.

i hold IHG as it's also a strongly rumoured t/o target

with a sharp downturn in international trade, i wouldn't go for shipping

Forget individual shares for now and just trade this one http://www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=19256#lastread

i can already short both ftse on dow via ig, but yes

individual shares are now almost exclusively for my sipp

the very brave - not me - may want to look at a quick long dabble in FTSE at current level (5850) which has provided good support to date

BATS or IMT?
does one opt for the one that has performed better or worse over the last year?
hmm

DOW
well into negative territory once more, so the next notional support (haha!) is 16,100 and that is now only a smidge away

So apart from oil what has spooked markets ?

sentiment ....... once the markets get on a roll, they tend to stay there

however, as i keep on saying - but don't even listen to myself - chinese published annual growth has shrunk for 10 to 7%, but i'm damn sure it's a lot weaker than that (for reasons previously given)

as far as ftse is concerned, there's a very real possibility that the referendum will go against staying, and that will also have profound reverberations around the world