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

indeed .... first one i have called wrong of late, so really shouldn't complain

fyi, just bought a few ANTO
good quality company, and though it is predominantly copper driven, that will be the first commodity to recover as and when

just to make you ponder ...... the following are all from FT that has just flashed through to my phone

China shares plunge ahead of G20 meeting
Investors not convinced by policymaker’s reassurance on economy

Oil industry tormented by epic bust
Rise in the amount of stored crude adds to alarm

European stocks firm after Wall St rebound
Traders nervous after Shanghai falls 6% and oil prices dip

China shares suffer biggest drop in a month
Three main national benchmarks all down over 20% for 2016

everywhere i see nothing but gloomy economic stories

inter alia, i give the headline of a long a unremittingly worrying story from today's World Cargo News - i don't know if it's available on line

Batten down the hatches
Analysts' reports on the liner shipping industry and the sector's prospects for 2016 paint a stormy picture

markets are totally nuts - and yes, even more so than usual!
another day to sit on one's hands unless glued to the screen

actually bought some ANTO today, but though slightly in the money, they are really for holding at least medium term

The state of the U.S. economy may get a little clearer today with a spate of economic data coming out.
Initial Jobless Claims - which have remained quite low throughout the recent market volatility - will be out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists are looking for them to tick up slightly to 270,000 from 262,000 in the previous week. This would still be a very strong reading.

Also due at 8:30 is the January reading of Durable Goods.

Later in the day the FHFA House Price Index, the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, and the Kansas City Manufacturing Activity report will be released.

DOW
i'm inclined to think that this will finish in the red tonight
i can't marry money to mouth very easily (sensibly) as i have a lot of cooking to do and shan't be able to monitor properly

Can't see how you can judge the DOW/FTSE at the moment ,it is so erratic .

What's on the menu Mr C and what's the occasion???

older son and the beasties are visiting (d-in-l is a quackette and working this w/e) so making some chicken liver pate (not that nasty sickly sort you always gets served in restaurants) and a really good fish stew with a tomato, onion, garlic and red wine sauce

Sounds lovely! Should take your mind off the losses in the oil sector!

try not to think about them, but done well with gold stocks this week (now out) and others like IMB, BATS, IHG and RMV are also doing very well (and still hold)

MARKETS NEXT WEEK
will they really defy logic yet again and continue north?
if they do, they'll manage what even canute could not

Looking at the Forward Diary, thursday looks to be quite a heavy day with some large companies announcing final results........also ex-divi day, though mostly small fry.

.

bonkers!
DOW is now +90 for neither rhyme nor reason
true oil is up a bit, but then so is gold which is also contrary

and i note that DOW then finished down 120 points

end of month selling?
all rationalisation as is this morning's jump across the board = buying on 1st of month?

.....and presumably towards the end of March, investors will be doing the same in order to get their tax gains/losses sorted for the year.

impossible to judge anything at the moment

however, everything tells me that world economies remain in a horrible mess, so i'm definitely bearish for the rest of the year though there will inevitably be upward spikes too

CHINA
i find the most worrying thing about china is that it continues to churn out millions or even billions of $ of heavy goods (steel and suchlike) that no one actually wants - so they dump it

in the meantime, though published manufacturing figures are a bit weaker, i'ld bet in real terms (you want; i produce) it's an awful lot lower

Fed’s Dudley sounds warning on US economy
Key policymaker warns of increased risks to growth and inflation


China data signal deepening slowdown
Factory and services activity at lowest level since aftermath of global financial crisis

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so in the light of the above, the markets surge - of course!