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 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.

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

hello computer? Probability got the better of me and its 1 all.

With the data looking better than expected and OECD recommending no further cuts in fed rate, it could be that they don't cut, should be a bumpy ride down from there, for dow. Question is will there be a sell off prior to tues evening?

Ahead of the opening bell, the Labor Department reported the addition of 94,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, and said the unemployment rate held steady at 4.7%. Economists expected the rate to climb to 4.8%.

The data "points to an economy that is not slipping into a recession anytime soon, but we're likely to see some sort of a pullback here because most of the news is already digested, and a rate cut is already priced in," said Cardillo.

In early action on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude-oil futures fell $1.4 to $88.83, while gold futures fell $5.4 to $801.8.

Sorry that todays short didn't work, I'm waiting to go short, hoping for a good entry point next week. But I will be carefull just in case we see a Chrismas rally, if we do I should imagine it would be a half hearted one.

Thought when ftse reached 6570 that it would be a good time to short, but it would have been against trend. Rule 1.

it's Dow or similar that is they key, depending on how Fed's decision, whatever it may be, is perceived by the markets