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

Thanksgiving long weekend stateside coming up which according to live oscar means even more madness than usual though more of the countertrend tendencies in indices and currencies.825 s&p resistance in down channel . Commercial real estate teetering on the edge

oh dear
scaling out of my shorts today, all at small profits. no losses yet fortunately.
still holding a few and still looking to add to at some point. will get it right one day.
looking for a swing high at 4220/4250. may or may not happen.
regards
jkd

i certainly wonder if all this is far too far far too fast ..... i really fail to see why FTSE (and Dow) has got itself so excited ...... international trade has started to look pretty soggy in just the last 3 weeks or so ..... our industry, chemical and shipping related, is at the sharp end of any recesssion, and we are now getting consistent and very disturbing reports from both M/E and F/E

cynic
i could well be wrong, but i want to be well and truly short when we get the final
scare, i just dont think we have seen it yet, it is still ahead of us.
if im wrong of course i dont want to get caught on the wrong side either. not easy.
i might get lucky. in the mean time im trying to be careful by building my shorts slowly.
patience is the name of the game.
regards
jkd

I think there was a bit of market manip on Friday with news release an hour before options expiry at least according to market ticker. Vol also thin. short squeeze plus a lot of short term momentum traders jumping on whichever direction things move in the last hour. I think the bears also want the market to go up so they can short it back down again. Also bottom fishers, value hunters pitching in on the new low. Thanksgiving coming up, and a few stimulus packages asnd citi group bailout. Oil bouncing off 50 good for commodity etf's as well. Who knows what the lunatic will sway next?

extraordinary but almost typical of current market ..... lookaed at Dow = +550 ..... went to wash up for 5 mins and had fallen by 170 points and during time i write this, has recovered about 50!

Shorted ftse at 4220, stop at 4200. Turbo nutter bastard rally, glad I wasn't fighting it this time!Surely a gap trade on ftse for the morning so will hold overnight and if stopped out reload at open, did you take a few hundred bull points cynic you seem good at riding the trend

nope ..... far too scary and have been relaxing of an evening instead of scaring myself to death trying to guess the direction and watching minute/minute

Should be interesting to see how long this current round of "bail out" euphoria lasts. I think the next big drop is probably on it's way. Something just looks very wrong with the way markets are moving these days, and I fear many could be caught by surprise when the next big drop comes. I don't know what the trigger will be yet, perhaps the auto giants going pop, spiralling losses in one of the many bailed out organisations, a new "too big to fail" business, or for real terror, the worlds creditors turning off the tap (by choice or otherwise).

Stay safe everyone....

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

One of the Insurers/Assurers would make a change-):

According to signalwatch Dow range is 8200-8600 now

DOW
my own eye was on 8500, and though had i been playing, i am sure i would have got it wrong (fright/greed!), it is noticeable that it failed to hold it, quite spectacularly.

imo, the rise had no justification and hence its fragility.
whether or not the inderx will now plummet just nefore the T'giving hol, remains to be seen

I suspect the next time the DOW hits support it'll plunge straight through and head towards 6500. Unless it can break out of this range to the upside, I think it's only a matter of time now before it takes the path of least resistance and breaks to the downside instead. The FTSE I suspect will follow a similar route, and given the state of our economy/finances (relative to other major markets) it may even be far worse .....

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

i am not quite so pessimistic, and would look for 7800 as a reasonable base

That's my optimistic view Cynic....if you want pessimistic, then ultimatley (and assuming a 30's scale depression) we could see DOW 1400 (yep, that's 2 zeros not 3).... ;-)

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

i see Fed is chucking another VLCC of funds at the market .... fine in some ways, but how on earth is the plumber going to pay for it all?

He isn't. Eventually he'll just print more money and devalue the currency....
Still. I dare say we'll be doing the same, so that's OK then.

Strawbs.

It's tempting to start exporting second hand Aston Martins to the Japanese,or perhaps a nice Malt like Tallisker. The yen has gone into hyper space and the Japenese are the only ones to have put anything in the piggy bank over the last decade, despite being in recession and reliant on exports.Might even be worth working out there for a time and sending the money home like everyone has been doing in the UK in recent years, though not anymore!

Dow looks as though it is struggling ...... it has been up to 8600 again, which some reckon as a resistance/support, and has now fallen just below 8500, again a resistance/support

Falcothou surely all the recent immigrants to England have been sending our money home especially the plumbers from Poland.