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

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.

how interesting .... Dow has certainly failed to break 8600 and is closing a little below 8500 ..... though up on the day, it does not (to me) inspire confidence in a further upward surge

wonder if Dow will finally manage to push through that 8600 barrier this evening ..... has certainly challenged it a few times in recent days

the answer is strongly affirmative unless there is another late sell off

who prints the bank notes nowadays? ..... they must be working overtime!!

Buy bank note manufacturers!

De La Rue not doing so well at the moment. Paper & ink costs too high!

had a look at volumes on a few stocks today, and they are very low indeed, so price movements are almost certainly distorted because of that ...... the interesting thing will be how US T'giving sales pan out .... as those start late tonight, there may well be some reaction by the time london opens in the morning

Lots of stocks being hit today, which I am hoping is the possible bad news being factored in to share prices if the interest rate cut later in the week is less than is hoped for. Assuming the cut is 1% (or more) then buying in the next 24 hours would hopefully see plenty of blue thurs & fri. Anyone see a flaw in my plan?

yes ..... the flaw is that the banks may just pocket the rate cut just as they have on the last 2 occasions

Yes - sentiment.

If last weeks rises were caused by low volume buying over thanks giving, then high volume selling this week could easily see a serious collapse in equity markets.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Thanks for the input, but there are still good days & bad days & therefore trading opportunities. It's just becoming more difficult to predict the good days.