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 hopping about all over the place
opened very dull and boring and down a bit, and has suddenly come to positive life for no obvious reason

FTSE
looks as though it will close above the importnat 6720 mark
however, the big question is how will DOW perform for the rest of the evening
though it is strong at the moment - +115 at 18,146 - it needs to breach and hold 18,165 through the close

Knit one pearl one cynic LOL! Toss a coin.

at the moment, so far so good
i get live prices on my phone so easy to follow even during the evening

it did all of the above (20967) and then flattered to deceive o'night

this morning it was all down but not nasty
however, both DAX and DOW are now sharply down

it has been taken as pretty much read that Fed will not touch interest rates this month
with that in mind, has this decision already been built into the markets?
i don't know and thus not sure what to do if anything

now then now then now then; what next?

i didn't expect the markets to react quite as strongly following the well telegraphed fed decision
however, it is now odds-on for a rise in december and of course there's the election of either the crook or the loony to come before that
following that, we get into serious brexit stuff

common sense, which we know often does not prevail, should say the markets have to head south, perhaps with the exception of precious metal miners

cynic, re precious metals, this makes an interesting read.

thanks ..... clearly a bit of a puff for this chap, but interesting nevertheless

DAX is roaring away and DOW is threatening to albeit it's still before the bell

if DOW can keep its momentum, then there's still a decent amount of upside which will drag DAX (and FTSE) with it

Hi Guys - I've just moved here from advfn and found this thread as being one of the more active and interesting to my way of trading, which follows the suggested principle of sticking with indexes rather than shares although I actually use the DAX as it has no dividend adjustments.

Somnus is an automated MT4 trading system and I'm currently running a £50k bank with a projected profit for the year of a little over 100%.

If you're interested come and join us on the ACTIVE SOMNUS TRADERS CLUB thread (just search for SMNS). We're a very friendly bunch.

Hi Ken, what is your view on BARC these days. Your new thread sounds interesting, bit out of my league re £50k bank though. :0) Good Luck!

Hi Chris - My view on BARC can be summed up in one word 'disgusting'.

And by the way, I think I'm the only one using Somnus with that size bank. I think most people use about £10k or even less.

ken do you mean that barcs are disgusting or the way it is run or just poor management

Laurenrose - It's off topic but if I'm honest in stating my opinion, all the banks are disgusting.

They must all have known that the PPI they were selling wouldn't pay out to a large number of the people they were selling it to.

I invested in banks as a 'safe' place for my retirement money and my losses are about £465k at the moment. It's not only the people they sold it to that they were defrauding, it's their shareholders as well 'and they must have known'.

thank you . surely the people who took out loans must have a back up if they lose they jobs , I would never lend money unless they had insurance .
why would any one lend with out insurance to be paid back .
does it now mean that anyone can lend and do not have to pay back just go bankrupt
only my thoughts

Surely it was PPI sold to the self-employed, that wouldn't pay out.

ken, any one can lose their job even directors .
if take out a loan surely the lender should have a right to get back their money .
I would never allow any one who as claimed ppi to borrow money again .

Sorry Cynic this has nothing to do with trading and this is a traders' thread.

Directors are employees just like anyone else who pays PAYE.

As I've already said it's the self employed that couldn't claim for losing their job, because they never had one in the first place.