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

called right so far and (small) Dow long now showing modest profit with indicator showing Dow opening +55/60 on last night's close ..... if figures are not deemed disastrous, then could be a very sharp bounce, though whether it can be sustained is another matter entirely

herebelow from www.cnnfn.com

Jobs growth picks up
Strong gain in payrolls is more than double what was expected in October; unemployment remains steady at 4.7%.
November 2 2007: 8:34 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Employers added more workers to payrolls in October, according to the government's closely watched jobs report that showed the labor market significantly stronger than Wall Street expectations.

There was a net gain of 166,000 jobs in the month, according to the Labor Department report released Friday, up from the revised 96,000 increase in September. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast an 80,000 increase in the period.

The unemployment rate stayed at 4.7 percent. That matched both economists' forecast as well as the rate posted in September.

ftse will in all probability will bounce come monday, so have gone long.

Time will tell ?????

if we are entering a bear phase, and i have not (quite) said that we are, then the mindset has to change insofar as whereas in a bull market, bad news is pretty much ignored, in a bear market, it is good news that is ignored.

I will bear that in mind

sorry about that bear faced pun, quite unbearable really

so what's bruin that you are so afflicted this evening? ..... clearly you need to practice yogi to clear the brain!

good day on gold has helped my mood.

better than the average bear booboo

in a more serious mode, Monday looks to be heading for another horror with news that Citigroup is in a real mess ...... i am currently long both FTSE and Dow but shall be closing those PDQ and quite probably reversing same.

and i did, though taking the initial loss (on the long positions) wasn't fun ..... very very slowly learning some discipline

stopped my long on fri evening, opened again this am, bargains out there first thing among the miners, but ftse needs monitoring closely. Am hoping the bad news has been factored in for now and other good deals will lift today for a while at least...

was too tired to wait for F/E to open or may have (been able to) closed before i did ..... personally, i don\'t like the feel of the markets at all, and am trying to gather up enough discipline to start moving my portfolio much more into cash or similar

Buy gold on weakness, I expect it to drop when us opens as further gains from last week are taken, will add then.

i hold POG as a good alternative to bullion ..... still well worth a look

"Bargains amongst the miners" well I thought they were first thing this am, getting even cheaper now. Just hope this is not a repeat of augusts sell off.

XTA now down at 100 day average.

Al. were down to 675 recently

don't confuse gold with copper, zinc, nickel etc .... totally different forces driving

granted.

Cable seems to have corrected today with little effect on gold price

i recommend regular viewing of the charts i posted at the beginning .... for instance, note that FTSE is now nestling exactly on 50 dma .... how Dow finishes tonight (pretty volatile at the moment) could well influenece whether or not this level is broken with any significance or a bounce instigated