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

Not sure I like the look of todays drop.
Hopefully I will be proved wrong but on a day when the market may well have rose, this drop certainly has the look of a SM that knows the economy has just taken another step for the worse.

Went into Leicester last night and was shocked at the total lack of people. It was like a ghost city. It was so quiet that I thought something must have occurred during the day.

8370 is major support for Dow supposedly

DOW futures now -60.

Not sure why 8370 is critical? I would have expect support to be higher than that now.

depends on how the charts are formulated - i.e. the "system" preferred

Think 8370 is the lowest point in the last few weeks on the candestick chart. My guess is that markets will continue lower. I suspect they'll want to give G.W. a fitting send off. They'll probably give the new president a welcome bounce, but with continued economic misery I doubt it'll be long before we retest last years lows again.

In my opinion.....

Strawbs.

Signalwatch Strawbs usually very switched on to support resistant levels though their trading strategy of break-outs seems a bit flawed as break-outs are rarer than bounces from support. 8370 has been the floor for 6/52.Live oscar usually interesting on s@p

Is it signalling something bad with lots of flashing lights at the moment Falcothou? :-)

Strawbs.

Certainly looking like it's broken support though still futures live oscar has new downward channel with 830 S&p as weekly target we're at 855 approx at moment, I got stopped out !

Dow 8000 next support

Looks like the DOW will finish down approx 200 points on poor retail sales figures which declined twice as much as forecast, business inventories down & unemployment figures which have worsened. I haven't yet seen the oil inventory figures which could be really crucial for the price of oil & therefore company valuations. My opinion is that thursday will be a down day for the FTSE, but at some point the traders are going to start to bottom pick, which should be good for those people who have some spare cash to punt.

not necessarily ...... cheap today may be cheaper still tomorrow

Agreed, but at some point one has to make a decision to invest in something. Over the last week or so some stocks have done very well. Even EK is long certain stocks (PYM, OCN, VLR & RRS to name but a few.) Depends if you are a trader or investor I suppose.

I think markets are rapidly becoming more for traders than long term investors these days (instead of the other way round). With such little confidence the temptation to book profits early, even for the bigger maket players must be greater these days.

Question is, do we test the lows before the new president takes over, then get an oversold new president welcoming bounce? Seems like a lot of points to drop in 3 days (I think Obhama takes over on Tuesday)......

Strawbs.

a good profitable week for those of us who are predominantly short ..... am inclined to buy DOW but am undecided as shall be flying for next 12 hours or so ..... shall sure miss that warm sunshine in Santiago (as well as some very pretty girls - lol!)

Can anyone explain why mar contracts for oil went up 20% this evening?

Texas crude that is

Steveo - prob cos Feb futures (Jan15) just expired

DOW futures currently +146. Will be interesting to see if this little rally runs out of steam by the end of the day.

The law of averages says probably not based on the fact that before yesterday, the DOW has dropped 7 sessions in a row and even yesterday only went up 20 odd points. I feel it could now be very volatile and ultimately may depend on the Government who are meeting this weekend to try to sort the UK banking mess. An announcement is expected next week sometime.

It's bouncing off 8370 resistance at moment, make or break?