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

bond markets may be, but Dow is most certainly not!

MID-AFTERNOON REPORT: Leading shares were still in positive territory by mid-afternoon Monday, although off earlier highs, spurred on by news of Eurozone deal announced from Paris on Sunday. RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB are the first to take up 'bail out' funds

At 2.55pm, the FTSE 100 stood at4105.91, up 173.85 points, a rise of 4.42%.

The Dow will be closed today as it is a public holiday in the States.

Taken off of the MAM front page.

MAM is clearly on a different planet - lol

try the following from cnnfn.com!!

Stocks score big
Dow jumps over 450 points as investors bet the worst is over.
October 13, 2008: 10:59 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks rallied Monday morning as investors welcomed the global response to the credit crisis, including the Treasury's plan to buy equity stakes in banks.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 450 points or 5.5% in the early going, while the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index rose 5.6% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) added 5.7%.

"MoneyAM
MID-AFTERNOON REPORT: Leading shares closed the day surging higher after a positive day in London and an opening rally in New York on the DOW. Stocks were also buoyed by Eurzone leaders announcement yesterday in Paris "

Also closed according to my Almanac..I want my money back? -):

However they do say trade what you see )-:

If this is Dow not trading......

Dow up 11% at close

that's some bounce!

Nikkei up 13% too

I suppose after being on the edge of "Financial Meltdown" the markets will want to have a party now. :-)

Strawbs.

one swallow does not an alcoholic make!

:-)

Too true, but does perhaps underline how bad things had become. I dare say after a few too many the markets will get a serious hangover and slide again.

Strawbs.

A good opportunity to make some money on the back of this surge though Strawbs.
Opportunity missed, imo, if you take just a watching brief.
I thought you might have become positively positive this week rather than tentatively negative! :o)

Strawbs is right, for this is certainly not the end of the bad news ..... it is 150% inevitable that the next bundle of results, esepcially from USA , will be vile .... it is then a question of whether or not market sentiment has changed sufficiently for those to be shrugged off

Maybe if you have the money to risk Harry. Found out I could be out of a job next year if conditions don't improve, so at the moment I can't justify investing anything in the markets. First rule of investing as they say, only risk what you can afford to lose. I still think the markets will be lower next year anyway.

In my opinion....

Strawbs.

Check Libor, the TED spread and the IRX tomorrow when our bond market is open for trading. You should get a decent idea of what's what at that point. according to market ticker, not sure how you do that though

Richard, re golf, will call or text you Friday morning to arrange or otherwise, depends how Thursday pans out.

no probs .... do you have my mobile number or "real" e-mail address?

DOW looking overexcited to me .... have already banked decent profits from FTSE this morning and have just taken out a modest short on Dow with quite a tight stop in place .... a good hedge in any case

I wouldn't be surprised to see an attempt at 10K ... phsycological level and all that. 5K on the FTSE likewise. Reaching it will be one thing....sustaining it another.

Strawbs.

perhaps, but given that Dow rose 900 from its low point yesterday and was indicating an opening high of +455 at 9898, i figured my short at 9847 was a pretty good bet, and in any case, if wrongly called, my other stocks would (probably) benefit further

Huge rises back to back does seem a little unlikely, but this market seems very much "buy everything" or "sell everything" at the moment, without much waiting in between. After marching to the top of the hill, they'll probably decide to run back down again. :-)

Strawbs.