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

Cynic

Thought you may be interested in some comments I have copied from another BB, which confirms your opinion on China. It also re-afirms my belief that the Chinese economy will slow down later this year.

Quote =

"A friend of mine is currently working for IBM in China and has just been to a talk by an eminent professor of accounting on the Chinese boom.

Of course (as you would suspect), he is all doom and gloom screaming sell China, but what I found interesting was his take on Chinese accounting.

His proposition is that the accounting standards are so bad across most of corporate China that reported profit is simply miles and miles off reality. Companies on price earnings of 20 to 30 are really sat at multiples in the hundreds and primed for massive falls.

It's an interesting situation and one that you could easily envisage. Do we really think developing China is applying the same accounting standards as the rest of the western world (when even they are not that good).

I wonder how soon it'll unwind? These things tend to come in an avalanche a la Worldcom and Enron. Maybe that snowball could smash it's way onto the scene over the summer.....maybe....., and that could be just as the Dow kisses 10,000 for the first time since April 2005 "

nice to see that some others have seen the reality of chinesse accounting (and mores), though i do not see armageddon as nigh.

just for the record, i took the plunge late friday and went long Dow (had been stopped out earlier) at 12485 on the basis that (a) there is support at this sort of level and (b) a bounce is overdue and (c) friday's fall was on very low volume, most likely caused by many squaring their positions aheand of long w/e

Quite a good read this weekend http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

I have taken a small short on the FTSE at 6125

out at 6102

now long at 6100 !!

Hope you're right I'm long too

Good call so far cynic better than expected home sales 3.3% probably manipulated but should give dow a boost

walking a tightrope at the moment

out at 6090 - got that wrong

Good call cynic - well done

Bhunt - me too!

Dow a good call so far, but we all know how treacherous it can be ..... shall be watching carefully, with a view in any case of getting out at about 12700

sold 50% at 12595

NEWSU.S. economic growth in the first quarter is revised higher to 0.9% from a previous reading of 0.6%.

now don't get too excited everyone - lol!

on a more serious note, am seriously considering shorting crude as while i doubt we shall see sub $100 for a very long time (if at all within next 12 months), i cannot believe oil will climb much further before everyone bails out.

that will be bad news for oilies, especially the mini-minnow E&Ps, but good news for many other businesses

What kind of level are you shorting to, Cynic? Tricky to pick a support level, unless you are going to sit there with your finger poised over the keyboard for a few hours!

i now have NYMEX (US Light) on my watch list ..... it's certainly a bit lively, but am looking further forward than just a couple of hours or even days

You certainly won't die of boredom trading oil... up 4 dollars than down 5 in 2 hours and counting...

well I am not sure that trading the indices is for me. I dont seem able to keep my profits and over the last month have ended up losing more than I have been gaining. A couple of good runs - but also a few bad runs - so I think I will stand on the touchlines for a while and watch you experts.

Its been fun - and I much appreciated all the advice - but I think I am too impetuous and playing too short a game