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

DOW futures are currently +74 & with little news due today I can't see it falling very much. Midweek may be different.

harry .... not sure to what level "your" +74 takes you, but on Dow cash indicators, it has been as high as 13060 this morning and has now dropped back to about 13015 (+50) ..... if Dow cannot hold 13000 this evening, we could see another sell off of unknown magnitude.

conversely, as mentioned above, NASDAQ is (the only index) looking much healthier

Hmmm......... Now only 13024 (futures not looking so healthy).
Am almost day trading now as seems sensible to sit on cash rather than equities.

as Dow has now dropped through 13000, have shorted modestly, but shall watch carefully

and have doubled up as Dow really does look as though it is taking a breather and looks unwilling, at least for the mo, to hold above 13000

was short, but closed.................too early as usual :(

key level at the moment, breaks down through 50 ??

50 what, to ask a dumb Q?

12950

no surprside to see a boing of sorts

So this is where the index traders ar these days....

I would assume the key level now is 12799 having already taken out the August lows a few days ago (around 12850? ish).

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Hi foale, I'm not really trading the index thingies, more fx, but thought I would have a dabble.

Strawbs, I was referring to intra-day support.

Which whilst I was posting, kinda gave up the ghost

pt. Sorry. Don't watch the intra day stuff......or even the end of day stuff much these days.. :-)

Strawbs.

Strawbs no probs, wish I could learn to let a profitable trade run :S
But a profit is a profit

12900 looks likely now

i still think somewhere between 12800 and 12850 is the level to watch for support ..... the actual number seems to vary slightly depending on the system used

12800 ultimately Richard, depends wot it does in between though :)

If it drops from here I wouldn't expect much help before 12520 ish (and that's only an intra day support point on the candlestick chart on Aug 16th).

In my opinion.


Strawbs.