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

enrc down 20%. now in auction

next coordinated move looks to be a (certain?) sharp cut in interest rates across the world ..... however, having seen the sickening reaction of the dog once it had got its much sought after bone, one wonders how this move will be greeted.

The markets will no doubt bounce at some point as the shorts cover and sellers take a break. I suspect there'll be plenty of volatility for a while until something snaps decisively. Nobody will trust the bounces though. If you can buy on Friday and find the market 250 points underwater after the weekend, it does little for investor confidence.

In 1929 (also an election year I believe), investors thought the market would recover from it's earlier wobbles, but when they began selling in October......they just kept on going. Of course, nobody knows if we're going to have a re-run of the 1930's, but they didn't know then either, until after the event......

I would say you need to be pretty brave to buy at the moment, and you also need to be very good with your stock picks. Personally I'll stay firmly on the sidelines for now.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

FTSE 4600 appears to be the next support level, who would bet on it not getting there?

Seems that the bad news is accelerating as more and more skeletons drop out of cupboards with resounding thumps.

Conversely the rate of decline in the FTSE is slowing down and showing divergence on the MACD which would suggest (for the moment at least) the bottom is approaching. Having said that tops and bottoms always seem to approach quicker than one thinks. If anyone has the time it would be a worthwhile exercise to study charts of a basket of comapnies and see if that divergence is replicated on individual stocks. Wonder if the Santa rally might mark the change of sentiment?

We're way overdue a bounce but as you say will it happen.

I certainly believe we can't carry on like this ie we'll either bounce or have total collapse. Wish I knew now ...

The 4300 to 4500 zone looks like a good support area to me. I find that technical analysis only works when the majority are feeling rational though...... :-)

Strawbs.

700 point Mondays! Always been a popular day to sell

I absolutely cannot understand why gold isn't rocketing...

Because there is no money. The end of credit means everything has to crash. The world lives on credit. People can't go into a safe haven cause it doesn't exist.

Down 300 points (ftse 100)....very serious !....this is no joke !.

You have to love the irony. People are presumably selling equities because of the mess in the financial system (Iceland, Hypo etc.). When the money clears from the equity sales though, it'll be sitting in a bank account somewhere.... :-)

Strawbs.

Many co's are strapped for cash atm and with their credit lines being constrained their options are limited to cost saving where they can, ie employees, also earnings expectations are still too high, so when the poor results arrive from the likes of retailers and builders in particular along with the financial sector. sp's will fall even further, imo. The co's who bought back their own shares at much higher prices must be wishing they had held on to their money.
2517

DOW futures currently -277.

Just another thought; I presume there is no danger of the brokers (some of whom are linked to banks) going to the wall? Everything is held in nominee accounts, so if they go down what happens to the stocks they hold?

Griffin Mining...for one bought back shares around 68p if I'm not mistaken....now 21p !.

Can feel an emergency rate cut coming.

Not sure they can wait til Thursday. At this rate (whoops) there won't be an economy left.

We've just got total panic now

There'll still be an economy.....

It all looks spectacular, but crashes always do, and this could be the mother of all crashes.... I suspect it'll hit bottom eventually, or at least slow the rate of decline....

In my (I really should be doing some work) opinion.

Strawbs.

how about a punt on long tomorrow.

After Robert Peston does his "it's all,,,,, very, very serioussss Hugh" on the telly tonight they'll probably be selling again tomorrow...... :-)

Strawbs.

Look at volumes to determine the real extent of panic selling/marking down.