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

Never thought that we would see the 3000's ever again (ftse 100).....total disaster for many !.

Babies and bath water I guess Cynic. I don't think any of it's particularly rational. A desperate dash for cash. Logic out of the window. May be Lehmans was too big to fail afterall......

Strawbs.

you're right ..... fyi, HB was a pools pundit with a huge following on Radio Luxemburg .... he was based in Keynsham, Bristol ..... anyone of my sort of age will remember his ads well!

ah they've just let us in Harry.

Be careful

Many a business will now fail...restaurants will be empty....travel agents will close....builders will go bust....UK economy down the drain !.

they said all this in October 1987 and by the end of the year we were on the up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World economy down the drain perhaps....

FTSE looks like it's recovering a bit (I'm going by the SB prices on the IG index home page) ? Opening down so much must've blewn a lot of stops.

Strawbs.

I was just thinking the same thing MD.

and thats the reason i think we're at rock bottom, cos everyone thinks the world is about to end, but actually it wont...

Stan , instead of doom-mongering peeps should spend their time watching for the bottom signs

B*ll*x, had totally forgot about IEC, was about to deal at 940 and then gapped up to 1000

it's ended in Birmingham.

Looked out the window and everything had gone.

WOW ....

We're all looking for the bottom.....just some of us don't think it's here......yet anyway.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

I'll turn you into a raspberry if yer not careful ...

DD... lol...!

imo fwiw i can see the DOW going down 500 first at open dragging us back down before we see a pull back, then Bush is going to have his little speech which wont make a blind bit of difference, but by tonight the worst will be over, and next week we can do things and other stuff...

If you can do magic like that DD, I suggest you turn your wand towards the market and turn this bear into a bull....

;-)

I think theres been too much bullying going on this week, bearing that in mind i'm off to make a cuppa...anyone?

No magic would help my portfolio I'm afraid Strawbs.

One sugar please & a couple of those biscuits that fall apart when you dunk them.(Bit like everything else at the moment).

Consider it well and truly 'dunked',
unbelievable what you find in the cupboards when you not looked for so long...
just found a midget living under my sink...