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

falc
no disrespect but predicting is gambling, in my opinion.
get it right and yes it is high reward but get it wrong and just ask the hedge funds.
making money in the markets is about following, not predicting. if this then that etc.
trouble is time we wake up to being wrong it is oft too late.
stop losses and running quick help.
or if long term investor maybe running slow, but as they say, run slow but when you decide to do it do it fast or not at all..
oft time we are wrong. my recent foray into autonamy being prime example.
i'm still here . solvent and doing well.no regrets.
by the way, i do agree with you in one respect, i'm not predicting, but i just have a sneaky suspicion that hedge fund problems, yet to come out of the woodwork,may just be image of bank problems that may just, when revealed, take us down to the final low. could be wrong. just a suspicion.
regards
jkd

jkd (and others) ..... i too shall try to sit on my hands, though i suspect this morning's fall is heavily overdone and ditto that predicted for NY .... however, that does mean that i shall riush in and take a long on any index!

the only 2 shares that half way tempt me to go long are IEC and SHP .... i actually hold a small number of IEC, but SHP's figures on wednesday should certainly be (very) good and quality pharmas are not a bad place to expose oneself - Boots does not count!

The world is de-leveraging, all that debt that has gone into the system since supposedly 1968 has to come out! In Uk we are fortunate to have a currency that is/has been major and rates can be cut cushioning the blow even if that drops the pound ! Hedge funds are having to reduce 95% margin position to 50% and have to sell assets to make that happen and they will surely be in for a bout of regulation. Private equity has lock-ins for investors so they don't get the huge redemptions that hedge funds are experiencing but they only make a profit by leveraging and those debt terms are coming up for renewal. Who knows what will happen next, there are slivers of light with falling oil prices and low PE's but panic is bound to make thing move a lot further. Value shares though must become better value in terms of their yield as long as it is covered . If this is the worst economic crisis I can't see it bottoming at 3700, perhaps dow 5000, ftse 2800 though that's total guesswork, might be worth putting a buy order December expiry FTSE for 2800!

You seem to have overlooked those investors sitting on the sidelines with their piles of cash waiting to invest.

i would hazard a guess that NY has decided to have a decent rally tonight, but shall (i hope) keep my itchy fingers off the index "buy" button

looked earlier as if i had made a correct call, but damn glad i obeyed my own instruction!

wonder what spooked everyone .... Dow closing down about 200 points at 8150, having been up to 8600 about 2 hours ago

Look out below!!

your right ... Dow in freefall .... now down 275

IG have widened the normal spread to 6pts from 4 - gits

Edit - just realised the effect of reverting to GMT - DOH!

just shows what an impossible market this is to trade.
after hours last night, Dow slumped another 100 points, with FTSE being dragged with it, yet we wake up this morning with Dow indicating +300 and FTSE +100 for no reason whatsoever that i can determine

Just wonder if it's Asia putting the boot in. Japan got poleaxed yesterday and Friday perhaps partly because it's economy is dependent on exports and the yen is going to the moon due to the carry trade un-winding. The hangover hits the European markets and US futures which then progressively recover only for profit taking before the close in anticipation of another Stuka!

apparently bounce is solely on the back of a strong showing in F/E o'night, though that merely recouped some of the previous devastation

One of the strange things about these big drops is the prices of certain shares when they occur. On previous FTSE higher lows for example shares such as BP were hitting 3.80 whilst yesterday they hit 4.10 now 4.60, and Glaxo which has previously hit 10 yesterday only hit 11.40 and is now 12.10. This must be to do with dollar strength and their strong divis though both could be vulnerable to governmental windfall raids, so perhaps when going for value it's worth looking at the currencies when buying. I managed to exit Lloyds yesterday at a small profit which strangely went up most of yesterday!The miners seem to be battling at key support levels with Rio fighting hard at 20 which it has hit 5 times now! If that support breaks I think the FTSE will be heading close to 3000 with its high miner weighting

BP had great figures and also, i think, offers a good divi

Markets appear to be forming a bottom at these levels. Assuming US GDP isn't really bad on Thursday, we could be lining up for a post US election, pre Christmas rally. I think markets will ultimately head lower though, probably testing sub 3000 at some point in the next 6 months.

In my (turning slightly bullish) opinion.

Strawbs.

I lucked out on a long dax short ftse trade that has looked annoyingly miserable recently but evidently due to Volkswagon getting short squeezed is showing a hansome profit. Ftse looking a bit double toppish at moment on a 10 minute chart! Arbitrage may be the way to play these markets unless you are sharp as a butcher's knife and fit as his dog. I think the market moves so fast that if you want to buy some value shares like BP, Gsk, it's worth lobbing in some cheeky buy orders e.g. bp 380, Gsk 10, Lloy 1.40

Yes, FTSe may fall to 3000, but it can rise to 5000 too. You should risk to get the reward.

If I had some spare money I might be tempted with a short term index long, but I don't, so I won't. :-) Just posting my observations really in case they're of any interest.

Strawbs.

Im neutral, but cant really see 3000 or under, prices just get too cheap...

All relative. If nobody has any money then people will only buy if prices are cheap (affordable). Works for equities just like houses, commodities, everything really. Asset prices tend to rise when people are flush with cash, and fall when they're skint. Logic tends to have little to do with it, and cheap is only relative to previous prices, not necessarily market conditions. All balances out eventualy though, even if it overshoots for years in one direction or another.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.