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

Reason for DOW sell off yesterday..........

Dow Jones news service was forced to correct a report that had quoted General Electric's top executive on 2009 earnings - after the report battered GE shares and sparked a late stock-market sell-off.

I think Germany is one of the few stock markets where a company doesn't have to disclose increased holdings. It's seems they are very pleased with themselves, having gotten revenge on hedge funds.

But at what cost ? If future business is diverted to more transparent regulated exchanges.

despite the euphoria in F/E and recovery of Dow futures o/n (how on earth do the authorities allow these duff reports - GE this time - to come out of US so often?), i think it is shallow and ill-founded ...... there is lots of horrid news to come, and at some time there will be a realisation that all these borrowings will have to be repaid somehow

The problem is economic changes are slow to show cause and effect, where as markets can act instantly. The crossroads between policy changes and market movements are often volatile. It may take several years before a stratergy is proved right or wrong, but there could be plenty of market noise in the interim. As is often the case, the smart money gets where it's going first, the rest of it plays catch up, the trick as always is spotting the change.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Dax at 700 point premium to ftse, probably in part due to VW shenanigans, Porsche have made a 6 billion euro profit from freeing up the market by selling 5% to the hedge funds, how kind of them! Gone for the short dax/ long ftse approach requires patience to get the convergence!Should happen if the market goes into freefall again

confess i am amazed that indication are for Dow to open +300, albeit that there was (wilful?) disinformation about GE's earnings just before Dow closed last night ..... today's GDP figures showed shrinkage of 0.3%, albeit that the pundits has been forecasting -0.5%, and new unemployment is fractionally worse at 479k against a forecast of 475k

looks as though Dow is now waking up to reality and is now barely unchanged and indeed is threatening to break down through 9000

Lots of people taking the rare opportunity of locking in profits, maybe. Last week no one wanted to hold any position open over the weekend, so would expect the same this week.

Monday 3rd November clear blue sky!

another topsy-turvy day in NY has drawn to a close, with almost a mirror image of yesterday ...... i wonder if, likewise, F/E will now slump instead of rocketing

There's a raft of data coming out for them, Mr C - and it's BOJ day.

was in and out of Dow short a few times yesterday, all modestly profitable, for which great thanks .....opened another short o'night on Dow with limit, which was hit ..... still have shorts running on WPP and CSR which may leave to run for some time yet (all relative!)

Japan down 4% Australia up cable down, bit of mixed picture and it's Friday!

4350 or thereabout seems to be resistance so I'll try and short from there

Off thread but it's worth looking at link below, very funny and I'm sure we have all been there.

Taken from a posing on a RBS bb......

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rWY3qGfe6gc/SKPsAMRaFGI/AAAAAAAAA7U/TaxKNJmUJ-Q/s1600-h/Picture+9.png

well i refrained from taking any new positions this week. just a defensive week for me being stopped out of most of my short positions at small profit/small loss/ breakeven.i just dont want to get caught on the wrong side of the market.
maybe were going to see that end of year quarterly bull run? i did get caught though.
caught between braving it out or running. it was a choice between what i considered 'safe' and good technical resistance stops and 'money management' stops.the latter was the one i opted for.live to fight another day.
the trend is still down so i'm not buying anything until it turns up,(even if it means i miss buying at or near the bottom)
although i'm still looking to go short again. patience is now required. just my opinion.
regards to all
jkd

Yes, a week not to fall in love with the downside. Lots of scary stuff in the pipeline though no doubt! 40% Ftse derived from dollar earnings according to FT so strengthening is positive for pharms, miners and bad for retailers as the products they buy in become more expensive.

wish i was always this good at reading Dow ...... had a good week at this, so am bound to come a cropper soon!

Lucky chap. DOW down 486 & if you rode the chart down all that way, then you can take a break for a day or two!

just part of the way, so am happy enough ..... thought it was quite an easy call

would also expect a bounce on FTSE from current 4400 either with or just ahead of the BoE rate cut