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

You must be dusting off your savings account books & getting ready for a plunge back in to the equities market soon Strawbs?

no .... am quite certain that WPP has much further to fall in the coming months ..... not quite so sure about CSR, but shall stay put there for the mo

Maybe only on the short side Harry. ;-)

Strawbs.

called indices wrong today, that's for sure, but shall just hold longs on both FTSE and Dow (just opened) at least for the time being ..... i could fool myself by proudly announcing that (for 2 minutes only!) there was a 50 point gain on FTSE just after the cut, and actually recovered to opening level about 15:00 before falling away again

Hmmm. Volatility's back. I thought the rally might last until Christmas before tanking towards 3000. Not so sure now. Worth keeping an eye on the DOWs close. Most of the extreme moves seem to be in the last hour. Think I might consider some ETF (index) based shorts if things manage to bounce back next week.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

I would have thought there would have been a positive kneejerk reaction to the BoE rate reduction. How wrong can one be?

I thought there was....for an hour or so! It's a fine line between positive move and panic move!

Problem is, you don't need much of an excuse to take profits with markets like these. Self feeding volatility maybe. Capital preservation still the key unless you like to gamble......

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

edit my post3416
have added my additional comments shown in brackets,
good luck to all
regards
jkd

The US government reports more grim news about the economy: 240,000 jobs lost in October and unemployment rate spikes to 6.5%.

200k was expected ..... Dow now showing +60 vs +110 before announcement

UK interest rate cut
i think it is almost inconceivable that if the banks do not voluntarily pass on this latest cut, then the gov't will force them to do so.

that will then give the public an injection of "feel good" factor, even if it is only short-lived and encourage some Christmas spending ...... imo, ASC will be among the serious beneficiaries of this.

as an aside, Beloved and daughter reckon the new Westfield shopping mall is absolutely fantastic and is causing the West End stores quite a lot of concern

I reckon Brown, Darling & King are playing the kidology card by talking tough about the banks passing on the full 1.5%, when they know darn well there is no better way to restore the capital base of the banks, and it's not quite so high profile as 'taxpayers billions bail out banks' and the bonus is, the banks take the blame. Aimo of course.
2517

it benefits all if sentiment can be changed for the better

Absolutely cynic, but you can bet your last centime who will benefit least.
2517

at least my mortgage is a true tracker, so i have certainly gained in full

I am pleased for all mortgage holders that my 3434 post appears to be wrong re the banks passing the interest rate cut on, if so then I have done Brown, Darling and King a disservice, and I stand corrected.
2517

I had expected to place long today on ftse, but to high at moment. Will look out for a drop below support 4476, before going long.

time to put thinking caps on ...... some pundits feel that we are at or at least very close to the bottom for share prices ...... there are strong rumours that our beloved leader will now cut taxes in one way or another, not merely to con and curry favour of course, but in an attempt to kick start some spending, especially over the Christmas period.

that being so, which sectors will be the beneficiaries?
looking out of my window, the first but frivolous thought would be boat builders and chandlers.

on a more serious note, companies like WOS certainly come to mind, and some select high street outfits like ASC and (perhaps) MKS, + DOM or slightly more questionably, RTN, and MJW even though that has taken another modest kicking this morning

Everyone I've spoken to recently have decided to restrict Christmas presents to children only, but generally maintain food and drink levels where possible. That probably bodes well for the traditional supermarkets, but not so good for the more generalised retailers such as M&S or the high street electricals such as Comet, DSG etc.

In my opinion.


Strawbs.

i'll second that, and i certainly would not include white goods retailers in my selection ..... you may be right about M&S and confess that has never been a fave of mine, though it should still derive some benefit from any gov't largesse, albeit that that will just be added to (y)our tax bill in the years to come

I gather we may have a reverse head and shoulders pointing to rally on nasdaq etc but it is a bear market and commercial property is said to be in crisis(Trump, Singapore towers) and credit card debt reaching for the moon. Key s@p levels are 897 825 768 on downside