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

long FTSE at 6502

closed long at 6472 ouch, I will now write 100 lines. Never go against the trend.

got shut out of FTSE long at 6475 while out for good lunch ..... serves me right but no big damage

Had a work out and good run to clear my head, and returned to write out some rules which I will stick on my computer when trading.

1. Never go against the trend.

2. Always use stop/loss, never move them when in a losing position.

3. Always stick to my trading plan, and make sure I have a good reason for the trade.

4. When in doubt do now't, there is always another day.

5. There is no rule 5.

6. See rule 1.

7. Always use trailing stop/loss.

Good luck

I think we could all use those rules, Spitfire!

ultimately another OK day being long Dow and FTSE, the lunchtime loss being obliterated and a modest profit to boot when positions shut out o'night

closed one short for profit, keeping one running for march.

gone short again today at current level with tight stop.

Agree should write down your rules spitfire. Might benefit from reading rule 1 today!!

FTSE or Dow?
certainly i find the current Indian Rope Trick bewildering, and am inclined to short Dow, but have yet to work out an entry point

ftse today hence rule 1, will wait until tues evening to short dow

sorry to see your FTSE short looking pretty painful

will wait another hour before taking any positions, (using rule 1) markets seem to want to move north, maybe things could change from Tuesday onwards.

Watching bloomberg this morning, it seemed most commentators are becoming more bullish on us economy.

are they nuts or just wearing rose-tinted specs?

the charts on page 1 are interesting and may guide your actions .... depends how you want to intrepret what you see there!

DOW futures currently -17, which is not drastic, but may indicate a bit of a friday afternoon sell off here.

DOW - futures and cash indications are different ...... cash indications are -43 at 13585

Thanks for the clarification. I tend to just treat them as indicators of market sentiment rather than focus on the exact figures.
Both are in negative territory though.

Also, 8.30 ET will be the figures for the U.S. labour market which, depending on the stats, will boost or tip the DOW. Predicted to be flat until then.

looked at charts and can see what you mean with 200 dma above 6400, just checked ftse up 60 and as mentioned dow futures down 39 a few minutes ago.

can't see a strong enough trend yet. So sidelined at moment.

the Dow (US) will strongly influence the direction of FTSE, and with that in mind, it's worth taking a good look at S&P and Nasdaq charts as well as Dow

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect employers added 70,000 jobs last month, down from 166,000 in October.

While the consensus is for a weak report, expectations for a stronger reading have increased since a report on Wednesday showed a bigger surge in private-sector hiring than originally estimated.

If the government reading comes in fairly strong, it could further ease concerns about a recession in the U.S. and give stocks another boost. Stocks have rallied for the past two sessions on positive economic readings and bets that the Federal Reserve will cut rates next Tuesday

it stopped out afet 35 points, must read rule 1, other one will come good by march for sure has very long stop.