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

Are you long dow cynic? It could turn out to be a double bottom or the start of the big dipper? I am long ftse and lloyds from open with everything crossed

no ..... had a small profit in Dow short o'night which i have closed ..... have left FTSE short running for the mo, just as a bit of insurance

Good luck with your positions, I'm currently sidelined on FTSE and have a buy order in place for lloy a little lower. Compared to other banks lloy are holding up well today, only down 1.6% against other banks which are down between 5 to 8%.

Bradford and Bingley are the surprise today, especially after the ratings downgrade. The market is holding up better than expected, although probably because people are expecting a 50 point rate cut from the Fed and expecting the 75 billion loan facility from Goldmans to be in place for AIG. Likely carnage if neither of these materialise

Just a question which is not directly related to FSTE/DOW, but involves Lehman's:
"LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers shut down its carbon emissions trading desk after the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, a source close to the company told Reuters on Monday. Everything's stopped, blocked ...
Lehman's membership on the IntercontinentalExchange, which includes access to the European Climate Exchange, the world's largest emissions trading exchange, was suspended, an ICE spokesman said.
This effectively disallows Lehman from closing any open positions on its trading books."
What now happens to Lehman's stock/positions as CLE has dropped 40% over the last few days leaving Lehmans with an ever increasing leveraged position?

no idea, but markets and general atmosphere are absolutely terrifying ...... Dow indicators showed +36 at one point this morning but now -105

I think Hbos might be in trouble. Rio at 40 for those who like white knuckle rides

interesting as every time it bounces back it gets hammered back down. Almost took the trade at 162 but not sure it hasn't got further to go if AIG goes to the wall

Fence sitting feels so good these days -):

nah, always the time to buy when it feels like the earth is going to implode... lol

Doesn't seem that terrifying to me. But then I've got my eyes closed.

Don't like roller coasters..... :-)

Strawbs.

yup i am intending to buy HBOS later today was the goldman results and the AIG position comes clearer. I would rather loose the first 5% or so of the upside than back a lame duck

Personally I'd avoid the banks. If the hedge funds were responsible for Lehmans collapse, don't be surprised if they look out for another target. The (long) risk/reward doesn't seem anywhere good enough to me.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

first bit of news, which could certainly be much worse ......

Goldman Sachs breezes past earnings estimates but falls short of revenue forecast. More soon.

next bit not bad either, though no postive reaction in NY ......

Consumer prices drop 0.1% month to month in August. Annual rate eases to 5.4%. More soon.

next bit of bad news, is ftse has just dipped under 5000, 4800 is next support. There is the smell of panic at the moment.

Lets hope AIG can secure funding.

5000 not broken decisevely (yet)!

Now I know what a crash feels like. The Dow has been known to fall pre-trading and then do a spectacular reverse however

shame i did not leave my FTSE and Dow shorts running, but that would have been very very brave - or foolhardy

I should think in the current markets, brave or foolhardy would be attempting to fight the trend.....

As the saying goes:

"Take your seat when there's blood on the street, but please don't buy until the blood runs dry."

In my opinion.

Strawbs