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

more beginners luck went short on SP500 index and woke to a '1005 profit' .
You can bet your bottom dollar that if it were real money it would be the other way.
Alex

No trade today, I looked at 15:30 and my system indicated a short, but at 5395 I didn't fancy it. Should have trusted my instinct and gone long. Stil there is always tomorrow.

Evening all, short position on the DOW now reversed going long. Still playing the yen 2 rolling bets selling. Yen very slow, funding costing more than movement at the moment..!! Whats everyone else into, missed Tanfield on the spread, equity +100% though so can't complain.

only trading ftse now, so will look at markets in the morning, would guess we may have a small bounce tomorrow, so may favour going long. We seem to be riding a rollercoaster at the moment, let the force be with us.

what a totally terrifying day with Dow plunging 200 in a second and now, quite remarkably, down less than 50 ....... wonder if it will actually end blue? ..... just possibly with nymex dropping $8.00 in a flash

beginners luck still holding 'up' 2.5k+ in demo mode.
only two costly plays [so far]

todays ventures: short on ftse late last night and sold this am, then went long this pm and just sold out after close for a two modest profits.
bummed out on XTA went long [in 3765 out 3710]after lunch and my stoploss kicked in
short on AL. this am [in 325 out 315 good timing/luck as SP went up after that]

currently am long on RBS, rolling over[in 165] and long on ITV[in 40.9], long wallst.[ in 11034 with a stoploss 10950] short on ftse [in 5198]

As I am in demo mode I can't pick certain shares but I would have been long on IEC and DNX if I could.[dont they all say that after the fact, though I am sure i have it on one BB window previously re: long on DNX]

may go long on XTA and RIO tomorrow but will see what I think about the market in the morning.

bon chance to all players[especially those brave enough to play with real money]
Alex

easy with demo isn't it - lol! ...... Dow plunges 200 and you can just shrug your shoulders and wait for the rebound

Cynic,
In fairness I am playing with sensible stakes and stoplosses as if it were real money as I hope, if I can maintain the 'luck', to eventually play with real money.
:)
Alex

have spotted a flaw in my logical plan ...long wallst.[ in 11034 with a stoploss 10950] short on ftse [in 5198]
these two move reciprocally and so one must lose money so closed out wallst for 11032 for 8 loss] though as it stands ftse is currently 60 down]

is my beginner's luck beginning to wear off :(
Alex

SEC to Outlaw Naked Short Selling and Prosecute Traders who spread false rumours - this might make a difference in the way shorters operate

SEC To Outlaw Naked Short Selling

such a nervous market today, unfortunately out so unable to trade, but the fall this morning was so fast it would have been past my trading support lines, so not giving me an entry for the first time in a month.

I wonder at what point we may see some bargain hunting, looking at some of the bank volumes today, most but not all had more buyers than sellers.

todays plays. overnight on wall st and ftse both bummed out as stop losses kicked.
went long on HSBC[in 721] still long on RBS [in 165] and ITV[in 40.9] thoough am showing losses at this time. not a good day for playing i think.
current strategy leave indices alone and stick to shares as slightly less of a gamble. i live and learn something new every day
Alex

The way things are going we shall (for ftse 100) be in the 4900's....soon...unbelievable !.

Adding to my previous post we must pray that there is not a complete meltdown...1929 wise.....oh dear !, that would be good for nobody except for people who do nothing but short !.

Complete meltdown!!! Why?
"In 1929, the Fed raised interest rates several times to cool the overheated stock market. By October, the bear market had commenced. On Thursday, October 24 1929, panic selling occurred as investors realized the stock boom had been an over inflated bubble. Margin investors were being decimated as every stock holder tried to liquidate, to no avail. Millionaire margin investors became bankrupt instantly, as the stock market crashed on October 28 th and 29 th. By November of 1929, the Dow sank from 400 to 145. In three days, the New York Stock Exchange erased over 5 billion dollars worth of share values! By the end of the 1929 stock market crash, 16 billion dollars had been shaved off stock capitalization."
I don't see any sign of panic selling, just the start of harder times. That's life. Bull runs don't last forever.

meanwhile, nymex bulls are getting badly burned ..... dropped $6/8 the other day and down another $5 today to $133.70

oil companies are gaining the most. 2600 bopd adds 100,000 a day to DGO profit.

that's a drop in a bucket ...... to make a decent impact even on a minnow, it needs another digit

for you, maybe. but another 100k a day is not bad.

if you say so, and though DGO may well have a good future, 2600 bopd is not going to make a lot of difference.

meanwhile
Dow really struggling to break up through 11100, so i hope we don't see a big sell-off later on