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

Is cynic ok? I've not noticed a post from him since early this morning. Maybe we should check all posters are still around. Ha! Ha!
2517

not present....

thanks Geoprge, your concern greatly appreciated .... have taken a severe battering along with the rest of the world, but am glad to say, did the "right thing" this morning and then spent the rest of the day on the golf course .... having seen the frantic gyrations of Dow, am more than glad i was well away from a screen!

Shorts taking profit for weekend by the looks just rallied to 8650! Nuts ! Glad you are in one piece Cynic

I need some advice from you experts---I have an account with fin and done very badly so far! I decided to stake my last 95quid on shorting the dow on open. I bet 2 pound a point and watched the dow plummet. I should have been quids in instead I watched as the total got to -1000 pounds!!! I tried to close several times and it wouldn't let me---I kept trying and suddenly the order screen went blank and now my account shows -5. Do you think the co couldn't cope with the crash or do I owe them a lot of money? I thought you couldn't exceed the funds in the account for a start. sickening to think my short was right and I still ended up losing! A fool and their money-- Never again!!!

Probably best to ring them asap moneyplus, good luck the dow is a monster at the moment!

thanks F.

m+ .... certainly if you had left a limit (or a stop) it would have been enacted

It was a bit of a mystery to be honest--I had an upper stop of 8100 put on 2 a point and pressed sell---then I watched the dow plummeting but a minus point beside my trade which looked alarmingly like spinning wheel! each time I pressed close and the buy button I got a message saying the trade wasn't within the limits and couldn't be carried out as I only had 95 in the account you can imagine my horror to see the minus figure heading towards 1000----I got on the phone and the dealer told me to press close and then buy--I then read him the message. Suddenly the trade disappeared and my account shows -5.45. I've checked again this evening and it says the same---so I'm keeping everything crossed that I've escaped at this. Annoying though to know that I did the right thing but still lost---that's it for me with spread betting, I think it's a rip off!

mp - I think you need to check your statement and check exactly what trade you placed. Are you sure you placed a sell order? I know it sounds daft, but I've pressed the wrong button myself a few times and watched in horror as I've opened a trade which immediately goes against me! If you did indeed short, check the charts against the trade and see if Fins skewed the market long at open, personally I doubt this is the case as astute traders would have filled their boots and shorted from higher up. Assuming that you have done everything right I think you have a case against Fins for your loss (and perhaps lost profit) sounds like their platform threw a hissy fit.

Edit. The reason you couldn't close your position manually was probably because the platform had worked out your stop had been hit and was in the process of closing automatically. This makes sense as you probably had close to a 50 pt stop at 2 which more or less equates to your overall loss.

m+ .... pth's last comment is certainly valid as i have come across that myself ..... i don't know who you were using for your trading, but imo IG are first rate and their stops and limits work properly, though you need to be aware that there are occasions when a guaranteed stop/limit is required to ensure that the price you meant is indeed the enactment point - hope that made sense to you.

i have just taken a look at the 15 minute chart for Dow last night ...... quite extraordinary ...... for example, at around 14.30, Dow plummeted from about 8150 to its low point of 7870 but by about 15.00 had rocketed to 8662 ..... then at around 20.30 Dow was at 8829, its high of the day, but fell 500 points by the close 30 minutes later.

Well....during the course of the next year I'm going to adapt a new strategy....bit by bit stocks being reduced to a handful....and 1 short or 1 long and selling without hesitation.....will take some time to implement this plan as need a recovery in my stocks first....but this is going to be my new longterm way of proceeding....the wide spread of stocks like I have at the moment is no good in these turbulent times !.

cynic that's the time I was caught up in it--like being in a washing machine! thanks for the advice I will sort it out next week. I have indeed pressed the wrong button before to my cost but this time I was very careful to press sell as I expected it to plummet and thought I was being very clever! If I only owe them a fiver I shall consider myself very lucky and perhaps their computers couldn't cope with the chaos. I wouldn't recommend fin though and I'll stick with buy and hold in future.

Article dated April 14th this year...


http://money.uk.msn.com/investing/articles/morecommentary/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8061784

remember reading at the time and reminding myself to short the FTSE, i actually did at 6200 and got stopped out, never bothered since...!
interesting though - the reference to PE's in the 250, i really do think there is an abundance of absolute bargains out there, i have been buying last couple of days, just need a couple million Woolworths now...!

Britain will launch its biggest retail bank rescue on Monday when the four largest, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Barclays, ask for a combined 35 billion pound lifeline, the Sunday Times reported.

there is a much more in the report on Reuters and it does not make comfortable reading

i would guess that the impact of the above will be to knock FTSE by say 200-250 points, but that will really be just a reflection of the banks' dilution and just may not hit other shares nearly so heavily

The Telegraph was reporting banking shares maybe suspended tomorrow, and the IMF have been saying the world is on the verge of "systemic financial meltdown". Funny, you never get fireman running into a burning building saying "wow this place is really ablaze. If you don't have a protective suit like mine your gonna die."

Don't these idiots get it? The best way to create panic is to stop people getting their money and talking up the situation with ever worsening warnings. As someone said last week, you can run an insolvent bank without a problem, but you can't run it when everyone knows. I think the entire financial system is getting to that point!

In my (we're doomed, all doomed) opinion.

Strawbs

have just read the Reuters article and I see it as good news since at least these banks will not go belly up this weeK. Will you lot STOP predicting the end of the world , you and the world bank/IMF are only making things worse

i am certainly not predicting the end of the world ..... i would also concur that on balance it is good news that the gov't (you and me and the other taxpayers) will end up as forced owners of large slabs of the banks - but don't think "you" will ever see a penny back, even though the gov't will no doubt rake back many millions in the course of time.

that said, i have little doubt that the market(s) will fall tomorrow, and maybe for the rest of the week, as the impact of the above and forced unwinding in lehman's and similar positions.