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

Well - I feel a short now at 4501 would be a good bet !!

Mmm - what do I know !!!

be aware that trading is very thin, so numbers easily exaggerated

Volume still looks pretty poor to me. Without serious conviction the moves between Christmas and New Year could easily be wiped out next week. By Tuesday or Wednesday I think direction will become clearer. Personally I haven't a clue which direction that'll be, but my gut instinct would be down again....

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

don't disagree, especially in the retail sector ..... still bullish crude, and have done very well so far

cynic maybe better to be in refined products rather than crude?

why? .... though i accept that crude is for trading so requires attention, whereas an oilie like PMO or TLW for instance, may be regarded as longer term holdings

cynic no shortage of crude at the moment refinery maintenanance shutdowns likely to push up price of refined products.

OIL
still proving to be a most profitable trade ...... am determined not to be greedy and have (so far) checked out each evening that i have played, with a profit .... thought of leaving this evening's in play with a close'ish stop but banked profit instead

Well done cynic - always good to bank a profit.

Am I correct in saying that it will soon be possible to short the banks again?
BARC, HBOS, HSBC, LLOY, & RBS are all constituents of the FTSE 100, which means if the hedge funds all gang up together again, the index is in for a difficult time.

Yes you are right. RNS after market shut yesterday. They probably won't be in trouble because most hedge funds don't appear to be in the market anymore.

OIL
Sorry to have to admit that i foolishly gave back a big slice of the profits i had accumulated trading nymex, but sure am glad i cut when i did ..... nymex currently dropping like a stone ahead of US crude stock report later

Came out at 3pm ish I think. Much bigger stockpiles than thought.

Likely to drop with Ukraine/Gaza resolution too.

DD .... you're right

cynic are we looking at oil falling to $25-30 over the next 3 months?

personally i do not think so, but then i would not have expected MKS to be up on the day either!

As I said over Christmas.... low volumes have a habit of exaggerating price moves in many markets, and this week may be a better guide to the true market direction. The MKS chart suggested a rise was possible, but my guess is it'll be heading back down again soon.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Latest shorting figures.......

http://www.investegate.co.uk/invarticle.aspx?id=66471