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

except i didn't get back in :-)
but having breached that, 15,900 is next target followed by 15,970

DOW
15,970 is now proving quite a stubborn hurdle, but so far this evening, DOW is certainly tending north ..... therefore guaranteed to get blown to pieces later on :-)

15976 , Do we hear 16000 in the room .

Yes i'm not sure that any rally won't be the same in reverse the next day .

busted 15,970 and now +250 at 16,020

guess this level will have more substance if it can hold it until 18:00, though some decent support has also now built up (during the afternoon) at 15,920/15,940

Keep an eye on oil ,both Brent and US up 130/40 points i believe any rally in oil will push up the FTSE/DOW ,it's not been relative until recently but there is a correlation of late.
Be nice to push through 16000 for a strong finish.

i could easily have been very stupid this evening and broken the golden rule ..... in times of high volatility it is imperative to stay in front of the screen

it doesn't look that you'll see a finish above 16,000 but i have my suspicions that china will perform well o'night and with oil now very comfortably above $28.00, there should be a decent day in prospect

a finish above 15,970 would actually more than suffice, always assuming no fall off o'night

Looks like our ft longs might just come good tomorrow James?

Down 150 Poınt move thıs mornıng. Then recovered. Great ıf you can get the swıng.

Not only the oil price responsible for the gyrations CD but Draghi to be "considering" more QE apparently now which markets like, as usual we will see.

Oil back over $30 during the night ,i'm expecting a decent finish to the week .
Be patient Stan ,i have held one rubbish FTSE long for 2 weeks but done ok around it now i just need stocks to go back up .Some good trading ops though.

QE.

I do wonder how events would be ıf all European countrıes had kept theır respectıve currencıes.

Personally I belıeve most would be able to rıde the waves more smoothly.

Off subject for a tad.

So we goıng up today?

FTSE set to march higher

StockMarketWire.com

The FTSE 100 index is set to push higher this morning, according to financial websites, in response to improving oil prices, positive overnight trading sessions on Wall Street and in Asia and assisted by talk of further ECB stimulus measures.

Markets up today CD?...Apparently so -):

they're certainly indicated strongly that way
just as an aside .....
though cash dow is currently +150, the level of 16,030 is still below where it reached during trading yesterday

also of course, we should all remember that markets are still inclining strongly south, so there may well be selling into any rally

Markets in Asia have rallied, picking up on a rebound in oil prices and a strong lead from the US and Europe.
The recovery comes after a sharp sell-off earlier in the week.
Hints from European Central Bank on Thursday that it might consider more monetary easing helped lift investors' confidence.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 jumped 5.9% to close at 16,958.53, after hitting at 15-month low the previous day.
Markets in China also managed to recover some of the past days' heavy losses.
The mainland benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.8% to 2,901.32 points, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.2% to 18,950.19 points.
Markets were encouraged by a recovery in oil prices, which had hit 12-year lows earlier in the week.
Brent crude was up 98 cents at $30.23 a barrel, while US crude was 85 cents higher at $30.38 a barrel.

As i said yesterday oil seems to be pushing the markets higher ,i suppose next week will tell us if this is just a bounce .

Looking at the forward diary for the US next week, there is so much data to come almost every day, that it seems high risk to expect this bounce to be maintained, imo.

True HARRY but unless there is some disasters out there we are starting from a low base .Here's hoping.

stay aware of this ......

US existing home sales figures will be released on Friday. Analysts estimate sales rose 9.2% in December from a month ago, following a 10.5% plunge