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

Fortune favours the brave...... But not too brave! LOL.

Strawbs

Days don't get much crazier than today some steely words from Robert Service
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/service_r_w/spell_yukon.html

Thanks for that chart Strawbs - couldn't find one that went back more than 10 years. I had thought we might see a bit of a bounce but then decided to close my (long) ftse position before going off to the office - and thank goodness I did!

No problem. If you go into charts, select the custom option and then enter a custom date range. It seems to let you go back around 15 years...

Interesting (over a decade wide) double top formation. Don't know if there's any other technical analysts out there. I'm fairly amateur at it to be honest. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the right peak generally collapses faster than the left peak, but I'm not a 100% sure on that.

Anyway, I've based my thoughts on that premise, so I'll be staying out of equities until we reach the 3000 ish figure. I don't see much of a recovery from there for a number of years, but I can see value in drip feeding some money into the markets for my retirement once we reach the bottom..... :-)

In my opinion

Strawbs.

Nikkei was down overnight, so unless we are the leaders in this minor rally, I presume all you guys are looking to short the indices again?

Well I still haven't bothered with a SB or CFD account, but I always go with the prevailing trend, so my instinct would be to go short at some point. I think I'd wait and see if there's any policy responses first though. Some coordinated rate cuts could easily put a large dent in any short position.

Strawbs.

The problem as I have been hearing recently appears to be that the government (read taxpayers) money being thrown at the banks is being used to shore up their capital ratio's instead of being used as loans. So if the government want to improve things, they own 2 banks, give this money to them to loan to industry. Or am I missing something.
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glad i banked profits in small ftse and dow longs held o'night ...... doubt if there is anything new that has spooked the banks so badly, but perhaps a reactioon to the general dithering by european gov'ts

Time for some new ideas I think, DOW and YEN shorts now done and currently have no open positions.

the following must be what suddenly perked up the markets ..... for sure f'ing european tossers have done nothing meaningful whatsoever

Federal Reserve creates new program to buy short-term corporate debt to 'prevent substantial disruptions' to markets and economy.

What should those European tossers do then Cynic?

take some definitive and decisive action instead of huffing and puffing ...... the shambles surrounding the "will we, won't we" rescue of Hypo sums it up

If the government intend on a bailout of equity in banks that they bail out then they'll want the best possible price, so huffing and puffing is in the tax payers intrest I think.

all that does is cause further instability in the markets, and not just in UK ...... Bernanke, who is a renowned expert in this area, is categoric that one of the major reasons for The Depression, was dithering by central gov't, wihc is precisely what we are seeing yet again in Europe ..... whatever the flaws in Bernanke's original proposal, at least it provided the catalyst for the US gov't taking action.

as it stands, the banks are stuffed full of money which they are unwilling to lend ..... if i have heard correctly, and i am 97% certain that i have, Fortis in Belgium yesterday unilaterally closed off all unsecured credit - i.e. anyone with an overdraft, even if "authorised", found themselves completely without funds and without notice.

Agree with the reasons for the Great Depression, not sure that banks are stuffed full of cash, maybe stuffed full of derivities, CDOs and debt which could be sold for cash if a buyer could be found but currently can't. I think any government bailout should be taken very likely and only as a last resort. I would prefer to see the Central banks replace the likes of the FSA to control credit and debt levels, I also think that we should print more money to free up the markets and combat inflation. This may dilute wealth but should free up trade....

but dithering helps no one!

Print more money!!! Isn't that what they did in pre-war Germany with the subsequent consequences?

Printing more money doesn't combat inflation, it does the opposite.
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Snap HC
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Ugh!!! DOW currently down 500 points! Not at the bottom yet then!