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

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

Up to 5900.. higher higher.

Dow futures up 200.

i think i'll have a small dabble (DOW) though with some misgivings
if the home sales are disappointing, all could quickly disintegrate, but with oil having a firm day, the odds are just favourable

.

Any idea what time those home sales figures are out Alf?

Relax Stan everything going well , oil up more than 200 pts ,your FTSE long must be looking a bit better.

DOW has stalled a bit at ~16,120 but i wouldn't be at all surprised to see a further surge
north (i hope!)

on the other hand FTSE has no appetite at all to take on 5,920 which is not very encouraging for the rest of the day as that is quite an important resistance

Relax is my middle name James but yes FTSE long looking better.

Good couple of days but not sure if the DOW's going to hold up .

it's trying hard not to, but if it falls back to 15,950, further buying may emerge
all quite tricky to say the least, with w/e starting tonight

Tıme to reflect on the week. Stıckıng my neck out and goıng for the 50dma as a target for FTSE 100 thıs week. Dow looks a long way from the same lıne. Inroads towards ıt.

Have a good weekend.

I can see your logic Claret, trend is down, never goes in a straight line. How are you going to play it. Go long Monday with no stop and pray oil does'n't tank again or no other sudden disaster to take it back to 5700, or trade it daily? Curious, hope you don't mind me asking.

Panıc ensued thıs week. No doubt we wıll get lots of chop to help out IG et al. Just reckon that a short squeeze mıght be ın the offıng after three weeks of almost one way traffıc.

Wıll just day trade markets.

Now wınter has fınally arrıved ın US and Europe. Oıl ıs another one that mıght catch out those only bettıng one way. That beıng down.

Just my thoughts.

CD - quite right .... it can very tempting to hold o'night, but some of the swings we have seen when we have been asleep have been downright terrifying ...... often pretty scary when we are awake too

Thanks Claret.

just going out for a few hours, but may have a small dabble in DOW or FTSE when i can pay proper attention
good to see both recovering well after a bit of a shaky start

i wonder what, if anything, has rattled wall street tonight ..... even oil has held steady so perhaps just computer generated stuff

I don't know if you read the Sunday Times Business at the weekend ,there is a hedge fund returning capital to it's investors and throwing in the towel ,says the markets are just becoming too hard to get right .