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

TP , glad somebody is thinking the same way - although I don,t think they(the computers) are trading all the stocks - I have been wondering if they somehow pick out all the stocks say trading UP and buy those or pick all the stocks trading down and pick those. I would love somebody to try and give an explanation.

MD sometimes it can be irrelevant to "know", but just trade what you see in the short term.

Stan , agree entirely with you but interested cos something seems to have changed over the last nine years although the Elliot boys are presently showing a graph of what happened in 1930 and huge moves were made then over days in the bear market but I do not think in the minutes we are seeing now.

Yes agree with all that, but don't forget that that was then and this is now, all new territory.

I suspect last nights rally was short covering ahead of the G20 meeting. I don't suppose they'll come up with anything, but many will want to lock in profits just in case. I read somewhere this week that trading volumes are down too, so any buying or selling pressure creates relatively big moves. Given recent volatility, many will be running close stop orders, so a sharp movement against the trend probably creates a "domino effect".

My guess is we'll probably restest the lows after the weekend.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

P.S. Well done Keaydian

md,

Glad someone feels there may be a bit of truth in my theory.

You may find it interesting to take a quick look at this thread

It drifted quite quickly but the theory I was suggesting was that it was the introduction of SETS that precipitated greater inter day volatility. And of course, going back to the pre SETS period we could not have had computer driven trading at all.

And no Stan, I am not saying it's more important than learning to trade in the present climate. I'm just postulating that these relatively dramatic swings in share prices may have ceased to provide a true picture of the world economy.

TP

ok KD, which way are you jumping with Dow today? ...... Freddie's numbers horrid and Dow indicating -190

Cynic, not touching it for the time being.

quite right too!

DOW
just to highlight current volatility
13:23 indicating to open -190
14:25 much the same, though it had been better in the interim
15:20 -210 though it has been lower and also 150 points higher!

Just testing the Dow at the moment. I'll soon see if yesterday was a fluke before I give back all the winnings.

which way are going? ..... get the timing and rhythm right, and almost certainly plenty to be made on both tacks

Cynic, lately I developed this inability to short, so can only go long when the option arrives.

psychologically difficult for no good reason

who watched Spooks last night?

Not me.

all about banks and uk being shorted to destruction!

Bit too close to the truth for my liking !!!

sure glad i am short of more than i am long (WOS, WPP, MKS) than i am long ..... only long of consequence is IEC which is a special sit

Nikki over 7% down, could be testing new lows here with dow at it's lowest point.