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

Chaps whats the best free live Oil price update site, a non spread-bet type ware I may have to register?

I don't know whether it's the best, but you could take a look at this one Stan:

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=FX:USOIL

IG's L2 gives true live prices on all commodities as well as oil

Thanks both will have a look later.

if yellen reversed us recent rate rise, wouldn't that knock the markets even more?
just an idle question on a hypothesis from nowhere

Good question unfortunately I don't have a good answer, Dow up over night, Nikkei up and what do we do.. go sideways.

Markets unfathomable at the mo so watch and wait for a signal is my stance.

Strange action today DOW opens down over 100 pts and FTSE is slightly up.

Yeah unusual but what's Oil doing today James?

Nothing much at the moment Stan ,around evens although can change rapidly .

Thanks James, stand by your beds then for a while.

DOW
almost certainly upset by AAPL's dismal results, but not happy to see a blip below 16,000
fingers x'ed that is but temprary

DOW
what a very interesting session here today
having been down as much as 175, it is now down just 55 and slowly ticking north
it would be very jolly if 16,200 was broken before close ..... it's still a litte way off (16,115), but far from impossible

All catching fire now took a small DOW long earlier

let's hope there's no tears before bedtime

I'm out for 50 points ..

what stance or news is expected or hoped for from yellen tonight?

just been reading it up .....

anyway, will this be an opportunity to "sell on the news"?
certainly if we get near 16,275 i shall be tempted

obviously others decided to put caution before greed :-)
having been as high as 16,230, it has now slipped all the way back 16,160 to show a very small loss on the day

hmm
must go to see what was said ...... market doesn't seem to like it much, but given the topsy-turvy day and times, nothing is much of a surprise

here you are .....

"Economic growth slowed late last year," the Fed's committee said in its statement, noting that the job market had improved.
In a widely expected decision, the Fed's committee also decided not to raise its key interest rate. Just a month ago, in December, the Fed raised rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
Despite its worries, the Fed stopped short of saying that the volatility in January will change its plans to raise rates at least four times for the rest of 2016. The committee noted that it's "monitoring global economic and financial developments."
It's worth remembering that after stocks tanked in late August, the Fed didn't raise rates in September. So far, the Fed hasn't indicated it is is changing its mind.
U.S. stocks fell after the Fed's statement was released. The Dow, which was up about 10 points before the release, tumbled over 100 points.

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i'm sure the fed's response was right
had there been an indication that rates wouldn't rise, it would (or at least could) have been interpreted that things were even more dire than published