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

Panic selling today, fall looks like too much too soon. Although I think we'll end the year at 10500 the decent should be more gradual based on results. No news suggesting increased investment in bonds or deposit accounts increasing money markets....

The dow looks terrible, could drag ftse down on monday by a lot except possibly for the oilies....I can never understand why do oil stocks drop with the rest of the market when crude is rocketing ?....does not make sense unless fund managers are forced to sell out...(crazy !)..., perhaps the market thinks that they are going to sell less oil with the high price (nuts again !), a few people might drive a little less (myself included ), but if you have to drive you have to drive !, so I think the reasoning is wrong.

Oil up $11 in one session ....!!!

.FTSE holding its own today

DOW futures currently +52, so maybe today won't be as bad as I first thought.

at least! .... a strong finish to the day on Dow, and on Friday 13th too!

sudenly everything looking bright and cheerful ...... however, it would be no less than prtdent to stay very watchful as though this upward surge could be pretty potent as some bear postions are squeezed, there is still plenty of serious economic nastiness around the world.

quite amused to see that Saudi reckons to increase production by 200k bpd during June as well August.

previously they said they pumping as hard as they could, and further the desert was shut (yes, shut) for the whole of first week of june due to fierce sand storms ..... once access was again permitted, the likes of halliburton had big probs trying to find (uncover!) kit that they had had to leave in the desert.

Oil currently hitting its 138 peak again for about the 10th. time, will it break out this time I wonder and hit 150 not that i have a position at the moment. Late last night tried to work out what the inflation adjusted peak in 1980 works out at today and came up with 900 dollars.Now realise this is totally incorrect. Had a read of Treasure of Kahn Clive Cussler recently not very high brow but he writes about a Mongolian megalomaniac trying to spike oil and sell it to the Chinese by causing earthquakes to occur at key oil installations. He destroys Saudi's main supertanker facility a major trans siberian pipeline and blows up China's main import terminal. The result...oil hitting 150 dollars causing the world to dive into rcession. Quite strange these current mad prices have been attained with fairly minor politcal sabre rattling and terrorist activity in Nigeria. Wonder what will happen when hurricane season arrives or something major happens?Definitely worth using guaranteed stop losses on oil at the moment as it could drop like a stone or fly up like an arrow. Both having huge implications for DOW

have just been shut out of FTSE long - limit up at 5920!
really was not expecting that, though more than happy to bank the profit.
whether or not this is now too far too fast remains to be seen and have a very ambivalent attitude as to what to do next.

good to see BARC challenging the potential resistance of 355

part of the answer perhaps ......
Wall Street mainstay Goldman Sachs' quarterly revenue and net income fall but top expectations.

on the other hand ......
New housing construction falls 3.3% in May as glut of homes for sale discourages builders - signaling more housing woes.

if i had had my brain in gear, would prob have shorted FTSE as soon as 5900 looked vulnerable .... however, did so after Dow close last night, and that is comfortably in the money ..... would rather be losing money on that, but fear the market (FTSE) still has 200+ points to fall, albeit not in a single lump

DOW currently down 290 points at 11522! U.S. banking sector looks to be on the downturn again with anticipated writedowns.
As I don't short stocks, finding a sector which can take advantage in a recession is now crucial. Hmmmmm............... if only! Maybe the old faithful utilities, but as they are coming up for an OFWAT review in 2009, even they may get hit with penalties. Any suggestions welcome.
Friday selloff on the FTSE or a bit of bottom fishing?

cant believe i never left my ftse short at 6200 to run... hindsight they say...

HARRYCAT------Try BEG, VTS or TNO.
2517

Cheers George. I will have a look at them over the weekend. Can't be any worse than the ones I've got at the moment, hopefully!

Just a cautionary note from this week's Shares Mag, written by Simon Griffin,
To paraphrase: "DOW chart seems to have a clear head & shoulders. If the chart goes below 11,723 then the target would be 9,900. Possible support at 10,740, assuming the level of 11,300 is breached conclusively."
A couple of recent aticles I have seen over the last week echo this sentiment that the DOW is heading for a big drop. Simon Griffin's comments are based only on chart analysis, which is not conclusive on it's own, but the implication is that the FTSE will follow the DOW lead.

Have also read recently gold stocks tipped for upsurge (usually linked to price of gold and seen as safe haven when markets are diving) so all in all more doom and gloom...

FTSE looks like negative sentiment today, with DOW dragging it down, no position yet but may short later if indicators indicate.