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

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

Bloomberg has just announced that naked short selling in the US will be banned on ALL stocks from midnight tonight.

About time! Shorting actual stock is just about acceptable. Shorting a stock without actually borrowing it first is unethical, imo, as the shorter has no interest in the company itself.

Any idea what the percentages are for "naked short selling"?

Just wondering if it will make a material difference or not.

Strawbs.

str ..... prob not fair as for an awful lot of the time - i.e. 95% - sp was in backwardation

Is naked short selling illegal here, anybody know?

Depends if you're working in an open office or not.....what people do in their own home is their business.... :-)

strawbs.

As far as I am aware, naked shorting is an acceptable practise in the U.K.

A Little bit of humour

Two young ladies go for a stroll in the forest and come across a frog

Frog - 'hello young ladies I know i look like a frog but I am really an investment banker and if you kiss me i will turn back into one'

Lady one - bends down picks up the frog but rather than kiss it puts it in her bag and walks off

Lady two - 'why did you put the frog in your bag - if you kiss him he will turn into an investment banker'

Lady 1 - ' dont be silly in todays market he is far more valuable as a talking frog'

Ho ho. Thanks Harry.

ps Selftrade has just come back on-line. Cost me 100 though as my profit in a cy has now almost disappeared so I'm well P**ed off!

Go up in the hills for a few hours and come back to carnage market neutral pairs trading is the only way to go if away from the screen