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

About 6.30 bst there was a spike on the Dow of about 100 points - just for a few seconds - and shown on the graph. Does this happen often ? - and would it have taken me out if I had been short on the dow?

Seems a tad strange - almost something done on purpose to take traders out - if thats possible ?

If it happened for real, yes, it would have taken you out. However if it was a momentary spike then more likely to have been a feed problem. Still would have taken you out though and then you would have to contact your broker to have the trade reinstated, has happened to me a few times.

Watched bloomberg at the close this eve and it seemed bearish which is unusual of late. AIG down 8.7% on hedge fund returns down 85% and Citigroup flogging 400bn of assets. Lots of talk re oil of course though energy stocks were supposedly down due to increased political risk and possible demand destruction e.g. people parking up cars, airlines throwing off anything that weighs anything to save fuel! oil supposedly up on dollar weakness re. yen and euro. US trade deficit dropped due to decrease in imports and a weaker dollar helping exports particularly US equipment to harvest natural resources. They are forecasting growth of 0.1%. After hours FEDEX was cutting forecasts as being highly affected by oil prices which . Generally volume still weak and retailers reporting next week. Bottom line seems to be that oil needs to fall back to 100 to get economy firing again

Thanks PT

I decided to leave my short on FTSE open over week end with a reasonably tight SL

Cynic...you have a doppelganger called Ultimate Cynic....I'm not sure who's who anymore !

thought that intertloper had disappeared once and for all several months ago ..... i would doubt he has the same posting style as myself anyway

Nobody has the same posting style as you!

good!

.

long at 6231 ftse, feeling a liitle bullish today.

closed long for 16 points. that will do me today, I will stick to one trade a day, unless I see a gift.

The ftse offered a gift on opening at 6212 for about 20 seconds, unfortunately I was too slow to take advantage, hopefully as I gain experiance I can take advantage in the future.

Good luck if you are trading today.

Got up too late today - my short running away from me - but still open for the time being - sentiment seems to be driving FTSE forward - but not with any confidence - so might just hang on a tad longer

Well done spitfire - wish I had the discipline to quit when I am ahead

with the indices I'm doing OK, no emotion and I just follow a trading plan.

on the other hand I can't do it with positions on individuel companies, I seem to jump in at the wrong time, or take profits too early. I entered a position short on KGF, and just closed for a loss, on reflection I didn't have any signal on the charts to trade, I just wanted to trade for the sake of it.

Very stupid !

Will do some more homework before next position.

I have closed my short at 6190 - and its too nice out to sit watching this for the rest of the day so I am out. Zero profit - but no loss either

good job as FTSE now 6240

Looks like I timed my exit right - but missed the rise - never mind 0 its too nice out there to be playing the markets

I note DOW has broken up past 12800 level, 12850 at the moment, if this holds overnight it should be a bullish start in London am.

Quite agree Spitfire. And Dow even briefly reached a high of 12905 this evening.

I am short on FTSE at 6245