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

CD - if you hold stock rather than trade on margin, it is an old adage that you're much better to keep holding than to sell and try to find the bottom

Sad old me. :)

DAX
though a poor day, DAX still manageed to hold quite easily above the important 12,950 leverl

Ex-divi day plus US Thanksgiving plus half day trading in the US on Friday.....not expecting great things for the rest of this week.

DAX
a sharp downward spike o'night took this below the important 12,950 level ..... for the moment at least, that was short-lived an there has now been a recovery to 12,985
with thanksgiving holiday in usa, it's hard to know whether there will be volatility or hibernation .... time will tell

Better day. Start of Santa Rally!!!

was a very lucky boy as took quite a bullish FTSE long just b4 lights out last night ..... that has romped away today, though it took a little while to do so

DAX long isn't exactly shabby either, nor several of my stocks

worth noting that FTSE has closed comfortably above the important 7360 level

FTSE - banked very juicy profit at 7440 and shall now wait to see if it gets through the next hurdle at about 7450

can anyone remember the epic for DAX?

DEX.

FTSE
glad to see my slightly brave foray into FTSE not even 48 hours ago is bearing handsome fruit :-)
need to check where next hurdle falls

FTSE
manfully resisting the urge to break through 7700 while DAX is on a surge and DOW in new high ground

backing the FTSE therefore becomes an interesting thought


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DAX
just banked 220 points at 13,162 on one of my longs
shall now watch ..... if it all continues north, so well and good; if it all falls away, then maybe i'll buy back

The big banks in the US reporting on Friday (Wells, JPM, Blackrock etc)....investors hoping for good figures to help the onward march.

DOW
have completely missed the seemingly unending rise here
having looked a couple of times, i have not had the courage to buy in, let alone go long


DAX
i have dabbled quite successfully of late, generally being content to buy on the dips to a certain level, and then cashing out at least part with a respectable though not huge profit


FTSE
this was the laggard for a long time, but has been steadily nudging north
i have a small long which i am happy to hold

Since the beginning of August when the DJIA passed through the 22,000 mark it has added almost 4,000 pts, that's a terrific rise in such a short period of time, some are calling it the melt-up. Be careful out there.