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 am a little surprised to see no momentum today - I would have thought that the FTSE would have traded up this morning after the strong finish by the dow and support from the Hang Seng etal.

Actually looks like Ftse will slip away this afternoon - but guess that will depend on how the dow opens.

No positions atm

DOW currently looking to open -33.
Banks down today, oil producers up, but no strong direction yet.

Just closed a short for a small gain.

FTSE feels negative with slight correction from Friday, but wanted to close position before DOW opens.

Sidelined now unless we pass 6000.

watch Dow to see if it can hold above 12800 ..... indicator is currently hovering around that mark

12780 & 12750 my lines of support. 780 breached (ish) but trying to recover. Sitting on the sidelines at the moment

Considering shorting the DOW if it gets back to 12780, can't say I'm keen on going long in the face of this downtrend from Friday.

Right on the button, should have taken the trade LoL but watching a Eur/Jpy trade at the same time, so a missed opportunity. Incidentally that came right off a res/sup line in conjunction with a 14 period res on the RSI (10 minute chart).

Can't see any direction in FTSE today, it feels like it wants to go higher, but if in doubt do nowt.

Sidelined today.........unless something changes

Hi all, can someone please explain stamp duty, i thought it only applied to those in the ft100 index.
thanks.

Hi, stamp duty is applied to all shares when you purchase shares in any UK company. I think the percentage is 0.5% of the purchase price, but not applied when you sell the stock.

If you use CFD or Spreadbetting accounts these don't charge stamp duty at all, and an even greater benefit with the SB account is that all gains are tax free, as long as it isn't your main source of income.

Hope this helps.............

DOW is falling now below 12700 level, if this continues then we may see a large down day tommorrow on FTSE sub 6000 on the cards. But still alot can change overnight.

Thanks for that spitfire,i bought peter hambro shares last week and paid 50 stamp duty.Is this company here in the uk or Russia.?

Have a look at the thread titled:
pay no stamp duty on these shares
These companies are exempt, otherwise you pay duty.

They are listed on the UK stock exchange but I believe have a large part of there operation in Russia.

And there she blows.............FTSE below 6000 now

Just returned to my screen to see above, and close out a short position from this morning. Tempted to go short again if it can regain 6000 then pass below again.
But I dont wish to give my gains back just yet..........

if you are on the button, there is an awful lot of money to be made on the indices in these crazily volatile markets ...... sorry to say i have shown myself to be a man of clay with balls of putty!

however, i am glad to see that Euro now seems to be sliding from its pinnacle ..... there is a long article in this morning's telegraph

GDP figures due at 09:30 this morning - should certainly have an effect on the FTSE one way or the other!

Well, looks like a rather mixed reaction, as FTSE hasn't done anything very much since the release:

Click here for GDP info

FTSE seems to be waking up now, back to 6080 level

If trading today look out for announcement at 1100 GMT from Land Registry March House Price Index for England and Wales. See last February release below.

House prices in England and Wales remained static during February, with no monthly price change, according to the latest figures from Land Registry. The average house price stands at 185,616.