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

Reckon I'll crack a bottle of Blue Nun :)

Cynic's gone awfully quiet - guess he's afraid we might be gate-crashing his dinner.

bloody right .... plumped for a bot of '93 Vougeot .... afraid i have far too much fine wine, and fear i shall be forced to sell at least some before it gets too old .... but will reinvest in wine

Probably better than investing in some of the shares that have been touted here.

that's an easy call!

on a more serious note ..... Dow tried to stagger back through 13000 but has failed .... also hear that US shoppers in this key weekend and week are out in numbers but spending less .... not a good prognosis

Richard if you have too much quality wine going you cannot drink, feel free to decant it in my direction :)

Don't let that coq au vin get cold now! Humble spag bolog here tonight, albeit with wine - but at least I don't have to cook it!

shall tempt you down south instead

who's making the spag bol? ..... really good if you can be bothered to spend the time to let the sauce simmer for a few hours and then keep it o'night ...... my cluck is not scheduled until about 7.30 .... made it over w/e so just needs gentle reheating, but doing jacket potatoes to go with

Re spending in the US: I heard on the news tonight that 60% (!) of shoppers will be heading to the discount stores - Target and the like. Can that percentage really be true??

hmm, DOW bounced off 950 again, not expecting much in the way of support though, but then I didn't expect it to go back through on the way North!

So how do you make a cluck then? Probably with a hen and a cockrell I guess :)

CCC = Coo (pigeons) Cluck (chickens) Clan ( those who eat them)

Think you have had too much of that wine already!!

Yes I reckon so - pity he can't share it with us.

tough one to call the Dow today.... might just range 12900-13000...might not

Well, closed short for +52, although possibly further to fall

That's me done for the day, time to switch to Betfair.

i'll tell you on the morrow Peter .... Dow now tracking south with some determination

Seemed to be....but possible test then...and rebound from 12920 again
Watching for now...