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
now directionless as it ponders whether to bounce or fall from 19,900 ..... former just about holding the honours for now

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banked decent DOW profit earlier but hanging on to DAX short

.

News

FTSE seen following US, Asia drops amid global rarrle

UP 15 POINTS

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

DOW
i opened a new and still modest short late last night at 19,954
this is now showing a pretty profit, but with greed currently ruling, i think i'll leave it to run a while longer

Yes cynic i am short DOW also went short FTSE this morning but only slightly up ,not looking for too many pts there .

DOW still crumbling ..... now down 112 at 19,850
DAX now following having been quite strong earlier ....... now down 60 at 11,610

yummy yummy :-)

Closed FTSE for 40 pts still running DOW ,although my shorts been running for quite a while now .

banked very juicy DAX profit (+165), but if there's an after-hours bounce as there was late last night on DOW, then may well re-open that short

DOW short still running

DOW
have now put in a stop at 19,850 which will still yield me 105 points if hit

my portfolio has been very boring indeed today, but at least i haven't caught myself out by backing the wrong direction on the indices

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fingers x'ed
just opened a modest DAX short at 11,709

Still short on FTSE unrealised profit of about 200 pts right now

well done .... confess i rarely deal with FTSE staying mainly with DAX and DOW

overall, i don't think you're wrong to be short FTSE as few seem to have woken up to the fact that there's some nasty times ahead, no matter what deal is finally struck

DOW
watching to see what happens if this drops to 19,800 or a little below
over the last 2/3 months, it has bounced from this sort of level, but will it continue to do so?

Non Farm payroll figures about to be released.

DOW
had a small long which i cashed in for +60
index now at a resistance but not looking eager to crash through it and onward to 20,000+

Bloomberg - U.S. employers added the most workers in four months while wage growth slowed more than projected, suggesting some slack remains in the labor market.

January’s 227,000 increase in payrolls followed a 157,000 rise in December, a Labor Department report showed Friday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 180,000 advance. The jobless rate rose to 4.8 percent, and average hourly earnings grew 2.5 percent from January 2016, the weakest since August.

The data, representing the final figures under President Barack Obama, indicate the job market is still enjoying steady growth though isn’t tight enough yet to result in a bonanza for worker pay.

DOW
now modestly short from 19,990
as mentioned previously, there looks to be no enthusiasm to crack 20,000, though no doubt i shall be proved wrong

as i have been , or at least for now :-)

It will come back down again cynic

certainly not fretting about it
in fact, i've had a very good run for the last couple of weeks, on stocks as well as indices