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

Yep its rather gloomy again isnt it after a good few days.

Not even silver or gold to turn to.

Might get a bit of early gardening done.

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- "The Federal Reserve plans to buy $300 billion in Treasury securities and acquire more mortgage and agency debt in an effort to bolster housing and hasten the end of the recession.

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is opening a new front in monetary policy after unemployment climbed to 8.1 percent and economists forecast the economy will shrink through the middle of the year. Fed officials also kept the benchmark interest rate at between zero and 0.25 percent and said it will consider expanding the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to include other financial assets, the statement said.

We are not even close to the bottom and therefore the Fed is engaging in a massive quantitative easing, William Poole, former president of the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview today with Bloomberg News. 'We still have a very serious recession in front of us,' said Poole."

DOW went -120 then +120, now +50. All over the place! But I suppose money to be made for those who can stay glued to a screen.

guys re your comments on property this is classic bull trap territory, you can't have the biggest downturn since ww2 or great depression and expect the bear market to bottom out after just 18 months when the average is 4 years.

I expect prices to continue to fall in inflation adjusted terms for another 4 years from here, who knows we may have a Japan style slump for much longer. There will always be local markets but this is far from over in all markets.

I'd be surprised if ftse manages to get to and stay over 4300 for very long, probably struggle to clear 4000, earnings will continue to disappoint as debt is repaid, banks will continue to have write downs, unemployment and consumer sentiment will continue to deteriorate for the next few months, as stats show fastest deterioration in decades. I expect we'll have another sell off come May June if not in the next few weeks.

God knows what that'll stir up, fear will return at some point, doom and gloom sucks, but there are always gems out there, if you find some let me know!!

I don't think we'll see Strawbs back yet!!!

agreed steveo - hence I'm short the Dow @ 7482 :-0

Correct Steveo. You won't see me back yet. But I continue to read (if not post). My guess is the FTSE will struggle to get over 4000 short term, and I still feel a medium term (2 year) target of around 2500 is still a possibility.

In my opinion.... ;-)

Strawbs.

Cracking day for Miners, Banks and Oils yet footsie only up 11.

Insurers and defensives down, dow down 80 odd pts. contributed I suppose.

Know doubt Greystones update will show all..he's a bit late today.

Good to see your still around Strawbs -):

Looks like resistance forming already, doesn't bode well. Unless you are a gold bug of course. Have long since given up playing ftse, but it really does seem to be playing out as I expect, since I stopped playing it!!

Won't get back involved in it as i'll get it wrong!!

Sticking to gold and oil at the moment and all decent associated stocks, except HGM which is really letting me down. Surely thats due a tick up soon.

i suspect that NY will finish firmly(???) down tonight as it has had a good run, it's the end of the week and a breather may be in order.

more of a problem is determining the next course and how to react ..... at least for the moment, the markets look keen to keep heading north, but it really is difficult to convince oneself that the bottom really has been reached, or at least that there will not be some very sharp and nasty corrections.

so, does one start taking money off the table already - trusting you have all had a succesful few days - or does one run the profits, and if so, to what sort of level?

You may be right about the DOW this evening, but a little surprising the FTSE didn't do the same thing. Sentiment seems to be more positive in the U.K. than in the U.S. at the moment. NIKKEI also shut which lessens any negative sentiment.
In the U.S. mini futures & treasury note options expire today. Not sure exactly how that impacts on the market over there, but maybe that's why the DOW is more volatile than the FTSE today? Hope someone more knowledgeable can comment on that.
Not yet time to lock in profits yet, imo, but worth setting stops if you can't regularly watch a screen.

Harry, considering your comments ftse might benefit from commodities rating as dollar weakens, but is down at futures close, sentiment doesn't seem to sustain rally, I have feeling doubts are setting in again and all we have witnessed is a technical rally.

In my opinion it is not long before fear overcomes greed and we see a downturn and retest of lows.

Could be consolidation before a move higher but as every day passes and bad news continues it is more likely to be a move down.

The big question is whether this is the last one, each time it gets more tempting and more opportunities arise.

Ultimately a question of strategy, personally I don't believe the bullish Hype yet.

I wonder, in that case, if this year is going to be very much a case of 'Go away in may........?'

Absolutely H.

Where are you planning to go Stan?

Amar

Hiving read the FT from cover to cover, I get the feeling that the bears still have the advantage. However, the current bear market rally means that some of my stocks are in profit & the question is 'hold or sell'.
The article on page 23 is the best guide on what may now happen, imo, which, summarised reads "Investors are probably better assuming this is another bear market rally........given the improving backdrop Mr Garthwaite of Credit Suisse reckons the market could gain another 10% from here."
Of course this is just an opinion, but this guy should be well informed surely? After all, he works for a major international bank & Albert Edwards of Soc Generale agrees with him & he also works for an equally 'respected' bank! ;o)

May depend on isa take-up (hence the touting the bottom is ) and whether commods can sustain the rally,crude sitting at the top of channel. Dollar doesn't seem to be strengthening at the moment soI'm long ftse from Friday close may be just for the gap

why would $ strengthen, except arguably against ?

Risk aversion has seen the dollar strengthen in recent sell-off's. The aggressive QE may or may not have put a spanner in the works regarding this feature we shall see

was fully expecting london to open weaker and dow also to tick downwards once again, but pre-market indications are exactly the opposite

FTSE 3900 now hit ..... am inclined to short but shall watch and consider nefore acting