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

very strange ..... Dow recovered 200 points in the last 15 minutes of trading - not so odd; just DCB or similar ...... got up this morning about 04:30 UK time, and noted Nikkei down another 6% and still seems to be so - but broadly in line with fall in NY ..... however, at that time IG indicated FTSE to open down about 60 and Dow recovering a further 40 ...... since then, FTSE is only indicated to open down 12 and Dow +145.

reality will be interesting!

i lied ..... Nikkei now down only(!) 3%

Did a little trading yesterday on indices and discovered the one click trade on the platform useful when trading dow as it's so fast moving, bit like playing an arcade machine in effect.

Signalwatch still looking for a break out of the 9300-8300 range

Some range huh!

and it's now right in the middle and going in both directios if not all!

Going the right way for me ;)

market ticker is anticipating 2-3000 dow drop in next 2 weeks!

Simon Griffin predicting a 'sucker bounce' followed by a 'slam dunk' final drop!
What exactly is a market ticker?

Which ones telling the truth?

I'm not sure if we haven't just had the sucker bounce,market ticker is a blog from US he seems to have called the right shots so far...

Just had a look at the final biggest risers of the day pages : the term "dead cat bounce" should used in the plural sense to describe the first 2 pages !.

what a very very strange evening .... i got off my flight and got a fright learning that Dow was down a further 200+ ..... got home and found down 250 with FTSE being called -200 ..... had a cuppa and watched the box and checked at close ..... what a turn around, and did a double-take .... finish +170 and then +90 more after hours though FTSE still being called -5 ..... didn't believe the FTSE call and actually took out a modest long for the morning .... currently blue, which is a good start.

4220sh seems to be a major level to me for ftse.
above this i was looking to sell into rally at 5000sh level.
it didnt get there so i didnt sell.
unfortunately i also didnt sell when it came back below the 4220 level.
now waiting to see if it can regain and hold above that level.
( fortunately i did sell a few individual stocks)
above 4220 up to 5000, not too quickly, a period of time for confidence to begin to return, then a slam dunk.
now that would be a potential sucker bounce for me.
i'm currently being caught between 2 hats, my traders hat and my investors hat.
i much prefer the investors but have hung that up until things sort themselves out.
as an investor i am not trying to bottom pick,as a trader i am trying to make some money in the shorter/medium term.
if 4220sh swings high i shall add to my existing individual stock shorts for the medium term.( currently in dec contracts but will add mar/ june shorts.)
would like to see some bounces to sell into.
this is a traditional bullish quarter,so i may now find myself trying to 'defend' my current shorts profits, and at the same time looking to add to them further, and yet also wanting a bounce, weird.
anyway thats my view. if this, then that, type of thing.
since when did markets do what i want or would like?
just for interest ftse has in my opinion broken major support levels but not yet proven to have held below whereas dow still has yet to break its next major support although it is testing it.
curious how all these major long term chart levels seem to coincide with whats going in with fundamentals.
all just my opinion.
regards and good luck to all
jkd

Very dangerous to pre-guess the market. What's become apparent over the last mnth or so is the market is totally unpredictable and any foray into it is almost bound to lead to disaster. A losing money mkt if ever I saw one. As an investor you should walk away and come back another day. The trouble is, as a trader it is impossible to fathom. I'm finding that about once a week a reallly good trading opportunity arises on stocks and that's about it!

my blue has now given me a very red face .... serves me right!

Dax is nearly at parity with ftse

Very difficult to call this market dealerdear !, the question is : are we anywhere near the bottom ?, if this keeps on dropping ....we are heading for one hell of a recession !, I hope not.....but I think that the UK is heading for years of bad times ahead......This government are next to useless....and the next one are going to start off with a difficult situation to turn around, good old Labour...spend..spend..spend...until there is no money left !.

This is the first time I have traded during a bear market,(scary isn't it) the gains on trading indices can be massive this month, but the losses could be as well. I'm being very cautious with small stakes, and only making a few trades this month. It's far to unpredictable at this time, and I want to be survive to the other side.

As for my contrarian investments I'm about 25% invested now, but started too early in February, still investing but down to a trickle now. At sometime I will invest at the bottom and come out the other side, at least this way I dont have to guess where the bottom is.

Looking back at last night it looks like there was a downside fake out from 8300. Lots of shorts ordered just below this level with stops above and then other traders betting on a reversal from the fake out especially it being in the last hour, hence a 300 point bear squeeze move in 20 minutes, nasty if on the wrong side.Very dangerous markets as you say only for the most disposable of income! Tight stops easily get whipsawed and big ones lead to big losses.