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

My best day yet! managed to gain 23 on the dow-probably should have held on but it's too nerve wracking when you're not fully used to it especially on the winning side!

generally i managed not to be too greedy and took profits during the afternoon ...... sold XTA too quickly but still, but that one is so damn volatile could easily dump 1.00 by tomorrow morning

too far too fast?
maybe, for NY looks to be boiling over ...... keep watching

Don't imagine Dow will be too happy about oil's move, though maybe it's a temporary technical bounce.Cynic what do you think about trading Dow/S&P with regard to VIX... options exposure to S&P. I gather when it is near or over 30 it can represent a good buying opportunity.I understand it was at 40 after 7/11?

what is VIX? ...... personally I find I can lose more than enough just trading Dow though S&P or even Nasdaq can be good too

Volatility Index

sounds like betting on flies climbing down a wall ..... not for me

They are indicators to show how much people are ready to pay for the protection of options vix is for s&p 500 and VXN for nasdaq, they show up on bloomberg quite a bit. The idea being that options insurance is cheap and demand low when people are bullish and complacent and high when everyone is terrified and receiving margin calls. When the number is high it may indicate a bottom and buying opportunity as there is no one left to sell. I think it was at 28 earlier this week when at 11130 and is now at 21 for vix,just read about it in Kahn.

I had planned to short ftse, with one trade earlier which was closed out level. But we seem to have renewed strength with banks at present, with barc leading the way, 13p up now and 23p of it's days low.

So sidelined for now.

Unemployment data out at 1230 gmt worth staying sidelined til then I guess the trend may be set from there for the weekend

employment numbers clearly OK though i have yet to see them

-51000 but rate up so market confused

they were expecting 75,000

yes Dow futures up but FTSE not convinced because the unemployment rate rose to 5.7%

prob waiting for real time in NY.
acceptable employment figures offsetting awful results from GM

Don't know how long it will last but gft global are doing 2 point spreads on Dow during trading hours and 4 out !

oil and gold dropped to key support levels, quite a day for dollar and commodities

all sorts of contrary things happening, perhaps best summed up by Dow which was earlier down about 100 and has just moved back into positive territory

just shows you what I know, I looked at indices first thing and concluded that today would be a ranging day and I could spend the day away from screens. If I had traded as planned it would have been very profitable.

Hopefully we may have a clearer picture next week, with BOE interest rates, Bank interims and Fed announcement all out of the way.

that's if you managed your timing and everything else correctly!