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

spitfire43
Thanks, I will take a look.

Thanks Signalwatch I owe you a pint!

even i managed a quick 200 or so ..... arguably should have held on after the bell, but no complaints

if it had been a weekday would have shorted after the bell (around 21.14) but to risky for me over the weekend.

a bit dosy, but managed to bank a very decent profit on FTSE long, and am now short Dow o'night .... had i been half awake, wouod have got that on at a better price, but shall be happy to bank a modest profit over breakfast - i hope

Assuming the NIKKEI follows in the footsteps of the DOW & FTSE, would you not expect the DOW to continue it's upward movement, albeit at a slower pace? Profit taking at some point, but not yet I hope.

after big movements either way, Dow tends to move in the opposite direction o'night .... nevertheless, have put in a sensible stop

Normally I would agree with you - but there seems to be a bit of momentum on this one. I went the other way - but again with tight stops.

Seems that this rally is related to possible abandonment of mark to market regulations,originally derived from Enron. This is meant to happen on 12th.March, a little on it on yesterday's Market Ticker.Good for banks because they can transform their balance sheet by no longer having to be honest about their assets/liabilities, not that has stopped Narclay's!Buy on rumour sell on fact?

Well done cynic - I got stopped out with small loss - too tight as it has since recovered a tad

Signalwatch sees it possibly getting to 7500 dow before plummet to 5600 which may be "the' bottom.Rule the overnight reversal!

what on earth has Signalwatch done to its site?
no longer seems readily accessible

Anyone else thinking yesterday was just a 'dead cat bounce'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yuwdsNpO_Y&feature=channel_page
2 day rule?
No signalwatch update so far today as far as I can see.
The thing I have noticed about overnight reversals after big moves is that they sometimes coincincide with a major top/bottom so it's probably worth setting half the trade at limit and half to stop at break even letting it run til domesday(better on a index futures than a rolling for slippage)

GOLD
for those who want to play ..... IG offers standard CFD contract - i.e. open-ended time - wherein you win/lose $100 for every $1 that bullion moves ..... i believe IG will also do mini-contracts

NY looks to be struggling this evening .... i wonder if there will be a late heavy sell-off

Last hour usually when Cinderella makes a break for it which would be 7pm our time I guess. Oil bearish today with higher inventories

Signalwatch seems to have departed this life at least for the time being .... however, 7100 on Dow is the next serious hurdle, and we are approaching that fast .... care required

nymex recovering nicely after yesterday's slump
meanwhile Dow at 7075, so am watching carefully ..... may well take a modest short with say 50/75 point stop if/when 7100 hit

According to that pivot point site recommended by Falcothou, 7085 followed by 7162 are the standard levels to watch. The other more technical levels are tighter than that, but am still trying to figure out which is the most important. Bit of a learning curve.