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

Bloomberg -"Federal Reserve officials held off from raising borrowing costs and scaled back forecasts for how high interest rates will rise this year, citing the potential impact from weaker global growth and financial-market turmoil on the U.S. economy.
The Federal Open Market Committee kept the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate at 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent, the central bank said in a statement Wednesday following a two-day meeting in Washington."

what on earth is the logic being JY's remarks, Dow zipping up, and ditto gold/silver and copper?
all seems totally cockeyed to me, but still

Not traded thıs rally. Once everyone thınks ıts safe to go back ın the trap door will open agaın!!!!

i thought it was just me
these markets scare the hell out of me ..... it all feels wrong

Needs following closely alright at the moment.

I'm thinking the same as Claret .
If i had to go one way i think a short would be my choice .

both Dow and FTSE now back in negative territory, but this also happened earlier yesterday

GOLD
i don't think i'ld be a buyer at the current levels, though would be happy enough to hold, or even bank some profits


DOW + FTSE
just shows the total unpredictability of these markets
first thing they were approx +65 and +35 respectively
as i write, they are -80 and -45 respectively

Ex-divi day today plus, at some point, UK investors may be squaring up their tax liability for the year end, bearing in mind that the next two weeks are short weeks due to Easter.

and the Dow?
imo, that is the one to watch, or perhaps S&P500 though i don't really follow that

No idea....I am just trying to randomly throw some tenuous logic into why the markets are moving in any direction :o)

Let us know about your findings please. It usually fluctuates at the start of change in direction. Asian currencies recovered well over the last couple of weeks and Oil has been settled within a range.

so which direction are we looking to change to now?

If anything i'd be short but could be completely wrong.

Hmm, I think it will consolidate around here and gradually move back up.

StockMarketWire.com
US initial unemployment claims rose to 265,000 in the week ending 12 March - an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level, the US Department of Labor said today.

DOW
just sniffing through 17,400 which is a likely resistance
tempted to short, but not sure that i have the balls

=============

and very thankful that i did not
confess i wasn't remotely tempted to go long!

DAX
not an index i have dealt in, but i keep an eye on it

whereas DOW in particular has continued to race ahead (oy weh!), and even FTSE has tagged along, DAX has gone south, with even an implication that it could continue that way

You may know about this already but i thought it worth posting .
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From Monday 21 March 2016, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is introducing a new auction to all stocks on its automated trading system, SETS. It's designed to improve the efficiency of the market and regulate the pricing of stocks that trade through SETS.

So what’s happening?

Every trading day, a pre-market and post-market auction takes place that helps determine the opening and closing price on an underlying stock. The new auction will be in addition to those that already take place and will start at midday each day the Exchange is open*.

During the auction, any stock that trades on the SETS system will not be available for 'Quote and Deal' orders. We expect it to last for a minimum of two minutes although the LSE have said the longest period might be up to 16 minutes.

WHAT..... no posts..... where you gone??