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

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!

Indeed timing is all important, would have made 30 points, but would have to admit it would have been very lucky, long from 5369 for 30, just before market turned.

so in reflection it was best not to trade today for me.

sure hope Dow has not got too far ahead of itself prior to Fed's statement ...... a couple of hours will reveal

DOW up over 300 points, no FED interest rate change, I imagine most people are long the FTSE on wed?
BUT many big companies go ex-divi tomorrow, which makes things a bit tricky.
Certainly worth taking profits, imo, before the next bad news hits the headlines.

Strength of the dollar relative to inflation and falling oil prices is where my eyes will be to determine if the rally will continue. Good movement on the Yen today, was hoping it would start to gather momentum but no such luck. 3 bets in play all short so good profit made, expect to hold these into 2009 so long as we don't go through too long a period of no movement. The financing costs associated with rolling bets build up quickly, due to no exact time frame futures are no good for this type of play. Surprised gold has stayed up considering the decline in Brent, it didn't rally like brent and now I suppose will look to restore the historic 9:1 ratio.

Sometimes I have the feeling that the markets want to rally, and look for excuses too, falling oil prices have helped and the fed no change dicision may have been a factor in this rally. But underlying economics remain very weak, so I can't see it lasting too long, with the RBS interims due Friday, this could influence the mood.