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

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

i know im the number 1 conspiracy theorist but why do the online trading platforms like Waterhouse always go down when anything exciting happens. Everything is stacked against the Retail investor

Yes I have just tried to place a order and surprise surprise the platform is down, it will be interesting to see if they execute some I already have in the system.

spitfire I obviously spoke too soon. i had a 5000 share buy at 1.5 on HBOS and they filled at 1.46. Pretty hard to argue with that for a change. Just sit and hold for 4 years

selftrade has been out on and off for the last 2 days just as I need to trade.

i know it has taken me over 30 mins to put a limit order on. Got it at 194.75, which will be a nice little earner if it comes off although dont have much confidence in the trade as the transaction date is showing as 22/02/91

nothing would surprise me re Waterhouse ..... see thread

lol Christ, think I might have still been a virgin then!!

selftrade down again grrr

rubbish!