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

I gather its options expiry today which may mean, and I do know very little about options and would like to keep it that way, that there will be a desire to make all those put options shown on the vix expire worthless by pushing the market up, in theory

quite possibly but one of the golden rules of money markets has just broken with the blow up of the oldest US Money market fund (Reserve Primary Fund). If a $ is no longer worth $ that may well spook investors, especially if it is another domino to fall and hits other money market funds. There is still plenty of uncertainty out there

The Fed drew a line in the sand.....and events washed it away again. Markets may rally initially, but I suspect they'll be testing 5K again before the month is out.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Is the blood dry yet Strawbs or still sticky?

My guess would be severe flesh wounds so far. LOL.

The crashes I remember had an "oh my God" moment, where everything looked and felt like it was falling off a cliff. Can't say I've had that feeling yet, although I suppose this is the first time I've been able to hold a short position (XUKS ETF), so maybe I won't feel the same this time around. I'm pretty sure though, unless my chart analysis is wrong, that we'll test 4300 at some point in the future. But as Cynic pointed out, it certainly won't be a straight line.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

HBOS on the slide again. unfortunately have to leave the screens but will set a speculative buy at 120 and see what happens. It took asia 3 hours to reverse it took london 25 minutes. I would love to be positive like cynic and Toya but just cant see the silver lining just yet

Thats a hell of a reversal, is there some news out there. HBOS was showing a 15% gain and now are 23% down, with other banks also giving up the early gains.

couldnt get the 120 on time but showing buy of 90 at the moment..something is happening

And I thought we might be in for a nice gentle trending day today.

well im off to play golf but have a limit buy order of 50,000 shares at 99 so when i come back will either be celebrating or crying. Have a good day boys and girls

selftrade can't cope with this and has crashed again

Wierd, re-test of the lows after 15 minute rally! Volatility you got it! Pairs trade long ftse/short dax at least doesn't get you stopped out !

Just checking in briefly to see what's going on - glad I closed my ftse position this morning before going out, having taken a modest profit. Pity I couldn't stay to watch the fun.

Selftrade now not monitoring limit or stop loss orders due to high volume.
Just sit on the phone for 20 minutes trying to execute!

Selftrade has been down since about 9am.

Can anybody recommend any other broker?

Relatively speaking Barclays without doubt.

Thanks Stan

I am sure about an hour ago when I checked, DOW futures were -30. Now they are -150. Brace yourselves!

housing starts were vile .... now -174 and prob overdone

oh poo waterhouse didnt fill my order at 99 for HBOS, despite being 88. Retail investor stuffed again. Oh well back to drawing board. who was it that said there was no risk anymore and the market was going up. Money funds are hitting the wall next and will be in a tailspin after the weekend. At least the golf was good