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

Slightly off topic, but after monday's fiasco & the subsequent conspiracy theories, the following just goes to show how easy it is for one piece of information to sway people's thinking:
"The Florida Sun-Sentinel was to blame after accidentally re-publishing a six year-old story from parent paper the Chicago Tribune, stating that after 76 years in the air UAL had filed for bankruptcy. The United share price went from $12 to 1c at one point.

United did indeed file for bankruptcy protection - back in December 2002. It emerged from Chapter 11 in 2006, but soon got back to its loss-making ways - chalking up a $2.7bn deficit in the second quarter of this year alone.

Perhaps it is understandable that investors jumped to the conclusion that this airline was bust.
An old rule of financial regulation says that the authorities should not seek to protect a fool from losing his or her money, but should stop a reasonable person from being made to look a fool.
Idiot market participants are at fault here - not the hapless website operative that pressed the wrong button."

How quickly sentiment can change, the DOW is down 200 points now with worrys over Lehman Bro now down 40% lower, a refinancing deal with a Korean Investment Bank has fallen through and Standard and poor has put Lehman on a credit watch. The Fed can't rescue all the major banks. Also I noticed a news release today saying new house builds in America had fallen again, it was only last week that I heard reports saying that maybe America had now seen the worse of the housing downturn. Now reports are saying that the housing crises could be far from over.

Sorry to be so gloomy, but tomorrow looks like it could be a very bumpy ride on the FTSE.

Earlier today I was thinking of cashing in my bank shares, and re-purchasing lower down, it looks like I may have missed this opportunity now.

Good luck for tomorrow..............

am currently short Dow but just banked porfit in half at 11300 ..... now wating to see iof that level holds .... if not, shall short further ......have also gone short ASC, excellent company though it is as i think sp has got far far too ahead of the game .... shall be looking for others tomorrow

just shorted FTSE for the morrow, though already indicating -65

So you shorted at 5350 Cynic. Should prove profitable.

I will be looking to short, but will wait till after open.

I'm useless at shorting individuel companies, but some of the house builders look tempting after recent rally.

Take a look at the FTSE 10 year chart below, and compare the last bear market to where we are today. Unfortunately I cant over write the bear channel onto this basic graph.

First the last bear market started at the second highest peak in October 2000, and bottomed in February 2003 = 2 years 9 months.

If you draw a bear channel using lower lows and lower highs, you will see that recovery would only be confirmed in November 2003 with a break of the higher bear channel at 4200.

This bear market started at the second highest peak in November 2007, and we are 10 Month's into this one.

If you were to draw a bear channel from this peak, I believe that to confirm a positive breakout of the upper trend line today would require the FTSE to first pass the 6000 level, which would confirm the end of this bear market.

I don't think we will see the lows of the early 2000 bear market, but I feel we still have further to go. I'm planning for a bottom either at the end of this year, or very earlier next year, in the mid 4500s. I can't back this timeframe or figure up with certainty, it's just my opinion. DYOR etc.............

surprised you lot are bothering , CERN are going to destroy the Universe at 8am in the morning!

Wana bet -):

Mr. Denninger isn't too keen on commercial property at the moment Spitfire...
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

"CERN are going to destroy the Universe at 8am in the morning"

Should make a lively start to trading then.....

Strawbs

looks like some of you guys jumped the gun last night. Like Cynic banked about half of the fall yesterday and sat back waiting for further direction. Having said that the market is setting itself up for a great shorting opportunity so will just sit on my hands a little longer and then its candy from a baby

CNBC have just reported that someone is taking a stake in Lehman's and the FTSE is now only opening 20 points down with the US futures soaring.

BE careful out there cause these are wicked markets!

set stop loss on final half of Dow o'night which was hit, but left even that part with a nice profit of 100 pts too ...... FTSE short open and showing about 40 pt loss at mo

dow futures up 120. getting back into shorting territoty. Will watch the open with interest. Can't see the Lehmans announcement of 12.30 BST helping any

everything all over the place at the moment ..... impossible to tell likely direction even for next 15 minutes!

I'm very disappointed.....

Surely the world was supposed to end by now.....

Strawbs.

it has .... you are now in Purgatory!

now we are 30 minutes into trading, hopefully things should settle, sidelined at moment but waiting for a short entry on FTSE.

might be worth watching Dow indicators before doing so ...... i believe 11300 is an alleged important level and, having dumped straight through that during trading yesterday, it is currently hovering just above that level.

btw, if of interest, keep an eye on AZM .... about to post there now