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

.

Have followed you in on a long cynic at 6159 - but with a tight stoploss. Dont want to risk losing my gains

Have to go out for a while - but able to set my sl at 6160 - so should not make any loss on this now

Looks like I have been stopped out on this - still a 5 is a 5

shame .... it was a good call .... FTSE now 6180

Looks like the US markets like what Bernanke has to say - the Dow is rising even as he speaks. Oh to have such power to move the world!

doesn't the earth move for you too??

Hi Cynic: it does sometimes - when I'm lucky! How about you?

big hole usually opens up for me

oh dear - and do you get swallowed up?

sometimes, or just fall in feet first and have to hang on by my fingertips!

Looks like your hunch was right cynic. Well done you

I set my stop loss too tight and got stopped out twice with just a 5 profit each time.

Oh well - Back to the garden

i thought US was remarkably robust yesterday given the raft of horrid news ..... though Dow fell, it was only by a very modest 60 points or so, whereas just a couple of weeks ago 300+ would have been the order of the day.

to me, it is looking more and more like a head of steam building for a break north to at least 13000

may have made a totally crap call on SOLA, but at least above post proving correct

Hope you traded DOW long cynic. I didn't because I only trade FTSE at the moment, once I have some more experience, I would look at dow next.

I know the feeling, having made a rubbish call on KGF short last week.

I think I will take gf advice, re - not trading duel listed stocks, I will look elsewhere. I like the look at gmg for a short which seem very overbrought, but will wait for confirmation of entry on the charts. A dead cross would be a good sign.

i have indeed .... helps greatly to soften the pain of the greed ... still running, but not sure what to do when (if) it hits 13000

sell - least ways I hope you did

took profit though less than it might have been

disappointing though the late sharp sell-off certainly was, do remember Dow still finished +60 or so and above 12850 ..... nevertheless 12950/13000/13050 (depends where you draw your line) is proving a very stubborn resistance

I went shoty on the Dow last night just before the close at 12995 - andleft it open overnight. Just taken profits.

Although I feel this has further to fall - it was stubbornly moving upward and eroding my profit. Will look again later.

Morning

I'm finding it hard this morning to see the direction of FTSE, what to do ? looking at dow,dax and cac I would be looking for a higher open. Will we see 6300 today ? "maybe" but if the ftse gets close then reverses I will try and place a short.

Well thats the plan at the moment.

Good Luck............