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

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.

Volumes look about the same as the last few weeks. I should think the shorting ban hasn't helped in that respect. These falls may be more about a lack of buyers than a mass of sellers, e.g. short covering, waiting for a bottom, or maybe not much money around to invest. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the selling is margin related too. More hedgies going to the wall perhaps....

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

100% agreement Strawbs. I'm here all day and since the ban on short selling what has been very noticable is the lack of bounce after a big fall ie no short covering.

As you say it is really about a total lack of buyers entering the market (apart from me! :-( )

I have hedged all positions and battened down the hatches. Glad to have got out of Lloyds last Friday,not so lucky with Rio or Dow long late last Friday doh! The problem with trading banks at the moment is that you can't hedge them due to short sell ban which in a way makes them one of the riskiest to trade, especially with no shorters buying on the way down, other than shorting an index or other sector. Mind you you could short Warren Buffett and you would make money in this market!

Darling said he will do anything necessary to sort out this crisis wonder if that includes resigning

Is now the time to go long = FTSE @ 4480?