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

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.
2517

Snap HC
2517

Ugh!!! DOW currently down 500 points! Not at the bottom yet then!

Signalwatch sees 8400 as next bottom!

Should be there by Friday at this rate.... ;-)

Strawbs.

Interesting start tomorrow then with bailout package being announced before open but with Dow finishing 500 down, so lets see now, open down 100 up to flat and then down 200 by mid-morning... love it... i seem to be putting around £10k a day last two weeks in to cover margins and its just not funny anymore...!

Big Ted I learnt my lesson a long time ago not to cover margin's as invariably they go against you and its dam expensive. Have been taking a more conservative approach and set a couple of limit orders with usually beaten up stocks when the markets turns down. Set 60% below their Friday close. It looks like both will be triggered today. It has to stop somewhere but I have now idea where.

Interesting program last night on BBC4 about the credit crunch. Looks like the investment fund & hedge fund traders, having become very rich selling packaged sub-prime investments globally, are now set to become even richer buying up companies whose valuations are rock bottom. Just us little guys left to pick up the fallout!!!

Hmmm. Just like the Fed announcement last night. Quick rally then fall out of bed again! Rather underlines the "one track mind" state of the market (or it's participants) at the moment. Probably the one thing Bernanke and Co. haven't learnt from the history of the great depression, it's not the policy response.....it's the publics one.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Agree, however it cant keep dropping 500 points everyday. and we all know there are a host of good little companies out there still going about their business as usual and yet only valued a fifth of what they were a year ago... The reason i'm backing the positions is because the companies (mainly CEY and CRA) both have plenty of cash and, well, lets face it CEY to become a producer soon sitting on mountains of gold (literally) and CRA about to announce a tie up with a global service supply leader, i'm certain if i keep adding the story will be far different in six months time, these are just two companies, but hell, there are now hundreds of fantastic bargains out there with hideously low forward PE's, that the market cant keep pushing down forever - the knack is making sure they are cash rich, from this post it appears i believe we must be approaching some kind of floor, maybe a bit of pain, but i think (as highlighted above) there are masses of funds waiting to snap up the bargains...