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

in that case, assuming it was within the last few minutes, i hope you were brave enough to hop on board, as it's now 5624 :-)

not since 14:15 or thereabouts methinks, and it then went up to about 5960!

Oil prıce ıs nothıng new now. We know ıts low. The Banks are now begınnıng to take centre stage agaın.

one looks with hindsight at the violent swings on the indices and the tempation is to think, cor, there was a bundle of dosh to be made there

unfortunately, it is only with hindsight that one can see where one should have got in and in what direction
as we all know, had we done so, we'ld invariably have got it arse-about! :-)

No i have not it's too mad ,it swing violently in seconds.

WTI (crude) has just dipped below $30

Another burst upwards yesterday afternoon then shot down just as quıckly.

Long FTSE100 @ 5610

Not much convıctıon behınd ıt though.

All over the place this morning again .

was lucky enough to score 70 points on DOW long yesterday evening - bought at just below 15,900 .... in fact it could have been much more, but very thankful in any case

just took a quick 25 points on DOW
i feel that i hould be looking for a point to short, but the market is being typically contrary

Short , so you think the markets will keep falling ? can they and why ,some of the bank shares are almost looking like 2008 ,is the world economy really that bad .

worth looking, but i think we are getting lower highs and lower lows which is never bullish

and to repeat for the umpteenth .... the eu referendum is galloping towards us and that will assuredly unsettle the markets

FTSE has now bounced through 5,700 and (cash) DOW through 16,130
if these levels can held, then there is a good chance that the upward move will be extended

shame i took my profits so early :-)

In clover at thıs poınt. No nastyness please from US later.

Still got the feeling it's a crap market

From skinny's traders thread .

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-idUKKCN0VJ0S3

don't disagree, per my earlier post, but even in vicious bear markets there are times when the indices will bounce and often very sharply

That's my point cynic i have got the last few wrong , i tend to go long it drops again and i end up just getting back to evens and out , my timing has been somewhat dodgy of late.

timing is indeed everything and for better or worse, i don't put in stops on the indices not least because of the spiking in either direction

however, with current volatility, what may have been bad timing is quite likely to come right in due course

Agree wıth sentıment. Its not good. I cant help feelıng that sınce 2009 we have ın essence, had an uneasy ceasefıre. For most parts Central Banks have just made ıt worse. If that was at all possıble.

good news or bad .... depends on sentiment and how you want to view it ......

Yellen warns global turbulence could hit growth
The turbulence in global financial markets could deal a setback to US growth and corporate hiring if it persists, the Federal Reserve chair told Congress on Wednesday, in words that will further reduce expectations of near-term increases in interest rates.

Janet Yellen flagged up risks to the US stemming from China and said financial conditions had become “less supportive” of US growth, citing the recent slide in equity prices, higher credit costs for riskier borrowers and the rise in the dollar, which has been battering exporters.

an annoyingly weak start to the afternoon, but despair not ......

Janet Yellen is due to testify in front of Congress at 3pm (i guess that's EST), and Ms Yellen will have the difficult task of being optimistic enough to encourage buyers – without being so hawkish it spooks the markets. If the Federal Reserve chair is overly dovish it could be construed as being too fearful which would spur on the bears.

While the FTSE 100 is above 5600, the outlook will be positive, and 5740 will be a barrier to an upward move.