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

market seems intent to continue falling ..... therefore watch for 3476 and keep your fingers off the "buy" key

Oilies such as dnx /tlw remarkably resilient.Wonder whether this will be called Black Monday in years to come or at least on tomorrow's cat litter!

don't know about DNX as i don't follow, but TLW has plenty going for it .... see thread re Uganda and Ghana

Thats it briefly but it happened a new intra day low for the last 12 month... 3653 beating the previous one from october of 3659. :(

Signalwatch anticipating 6500 which possibly equates to 3400 ftse

3632 actually.

foolishly tempting to act on the renewed and horrid weakness in both markets, but prudently have decided to do nowt!

Goldfinger:
The FTSE 100 intra day low before today in the last 12 months was on the 27.10.08 at 3655.21.
The 10 year is 3277.5 on 12.3.2003

well london touched 3616 today and is still only 3635

i just wonder if we are now very close to the famed "final capitulation", after which the markets then start to recover .... don't forget, they tend to look forward about 6 months

one big surprise (for me) has been the sell off of bullion - now down to $927 whereas it tried to breach $1000 just a few days ago

one final "nonsense" ..... 3476 on ftse may well happen tomorrow .... and then???? .... anyone's guess

As I posted on the HOC thread on the 25th Feb, which I thought was correct at the time & has proved so:
"Besides the significant psychological barrier of the $1,000 an ounce landmark (due to the enormous tumble in gold prices that occurred last July, 2008 right after gold reached this pinnacle), other developments in futures markets that lurk beneath the surface also point to a temporary correction in the works over the next few weeks.

Furthermore, despite the strong showing of gold prices in recent days, the leveling-off behavior of major gold stocks like Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) also raises a red flag.

The information uncovered in this regard tells me that a correction, and perhaps a significant correction in gold prices, is likely to occur in the coming weeks, though the long-term trend is still higher and significantly higher. But dont misinterpret my message. Physical gold is one of the most conservative investments you could own right now. And even from todays price, it is destined to go much higher. However, right now, the risk-reward scenario is not attractive at all. So despite the deluge of articles telling you to buy, buy, buy gold now, dont take the bait, no matter how tempting."

Cynic we have March spreadbet expirys coming up pretty soon, think its the 17th, so a lot of traders will be looking to get shot of losing positions and selling into any sign of a rally compounding or delaying the bottom you speak of.

It would appear that Zopa is offering excelent long term returns.

Well at least betting on the reversal at the Dow close still holds water, nice profit on Nikkei limit long and few points from off loading one of the ftse shorts covering my long dax(another war of attrition)Was that just a massive Monday morning blues with every long stop triggered between here and Shanghai

Cyners.. anyone.... what do you think to Zopa???.

Think its a good investment????.

thought it was some kind of hungarian goulash!

i now see it's some kind of financial animal, so would rather stick to the goulash!

LOL, nope.

We were talking about portfolio diversification yesterday if you remember, I forgot to mention I have a play on Zopa.

Check the site out, its a better reward than stocks at the moment.

.......... and safer imho.

Two threads about Zopa on here chaps, one in each room..just do the search.

Gold seems to be holding at $925, my silver trade is paying big dividends though.