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

I think the knee-jerk reaction after hours on Dow, primarily due to weak forecast by Apple despite first rate numbers, will be shown to be overdone ..... if you read (www.cnnfn.com) you will note they have some new stuff in the pipeline to be launched within the next few months

...... we're busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months

An interesting read, but he also said
".......Apple's CFO, said on a conference call with analysts that the company's profit margins will be pressured in part by a "future product transition" that he said he was not at liberty to discuss at the present time."
The other thing which I think may be a worry is that they are pinning their hopes on the new iphone 3G. I may be wrong, but I thought that the 3G takeup in Europe was very low due to the comparative cost to normal networks. Maybe in the U.S. 3G is successful. Admittedly Apple have a very faithful customer base, which is a point in their favour.

I think Apple is a great company with excellent products but they are consumer discretionary items and generally priced at a premium to competition. They have been selling vast amounts of their new phone though at a reduced margin

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/ mention of apple and naked shorting on here today

Naked shorting: "An investor agrees to sell shares without having borrowed them first. This encourages hedge funds to sell shares & then rush to buy them again."
They are thinking of outlawing this practise for financial institutions. Maybe they should ban it altogether! Just mho.

would certainly ban most traders from rushing around naked!
meanwhile, looks as though we shall be in for a juicy day in london tomorrow with a really strong performance in NY and Dow finishing at day's high.
5450 is the resistance to break (i hope)

first part was an easy call, though have banked my indices profits while waiting to see if either/and/or Dow and FTSE can maintain upward momentum.

Worth a look at Alex today
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?menuId=242&menuItemId=-1&view=SUMMARY&grid=F2&siteId=1&targetRule=2

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
They are going to nationalise freddie an Fannie.
Just been reading Bubbles and how to avoid them, wish I read it last July.
From Kahn..in a bear market the mood changes from 'It's ok to buy the dips' to 'better get out on the next bounce' to get me out now at any price' ultimately ending in 'revulsion'

This has the feel of another bear market rally to me, with Vodafone issuing a mild profit warning, it looks like a sign of things to come. I don't like to see companies having knee jerk re-action to the sp, by saying they will buy back 1bn worth of shares because they are undervalued.

The key point is when banks report interims at the end of the month. I would love to see a return to a more normal market, and go back to stock selection, rather than trade the indices. Unfortunately I can't see this happening for a good while yet.

I always thought share buy backs were a waste of money e.g Alliance and Leicester doing it at 7-8 pounds a few months ago. Dow has needed oil to drop to rally so people have been bailing out of commodity etfs which have dragged other commods down for the ride. Ftse would be a lot higher in this rally if it wasn't so resource based. Difficult to call a top

Share buy backs are a waste of money, they are often used to help hit EPS targets which are linked to the directors bonus.

What ARE you suggesting spitfire43, surely directors wouldn't embark on a means of enhancing THEIR remuneration and at the same time promote it as good for shareholders ? My! MY!
2517

I wouldn't suggest that at all, I believe that these director only have the well being of the shareholders in their hearts. I also believe in pikie's goblins and that England will win the world cup.................

As for the FTSE can't decide whether to be a bull or bear today, with no direction from the DOW, so may leave alone today. Would expect a ranging day.

I dipped my toes in today--FTSE DOW BARC LLOY and HSBOS got thoroughly burnt on all of them! They move so fast--I got stopped out 3 times and closed losers the rest. back to the manual for me!! lol

MP Lovely to hear there are others like me.

tomorrow is another day!

But......Tomorrow never comes.

Well the dow has fallen off a cliff so far so maybe a recovery tomorrow?? At least I had a winner on the horses today----Australia Day.

Some reckon that the next drop on the dow will be in the order of 3000 points whenever it comes so long is a risky business. Some also suggest a Summer rally.