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

Well I hope your shorts will be ok first thing today Falco - I reckon the ftse will go up before it comes down again, following last night's massive surge on the Dow. But I could well be wrong, as I have been before of course.

I'm using 4000 as resistance.Fear and greed!

ok - good luck!

in that case you've been stopped out already

My resistance levels allow a little leeway,wire fences have elasticity! plus markets aren't open yet,first half hour is key then I will decide to bail or not.Some bullish news from Lloyds of London this morn.

ah ..... thought it was a stop you had left with your broker ..... markets may not be open, but indices are tradable virually throughout the night ..... FTSE currently showing 4010/4015 (+55)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/5038918/Global-markets-rally-on-US-toxic-asset-plan.html

Shorts all closed now,didn't run them enough as usual,must get the hang of trailing s/l's

ftse100trader's video updates if anyone is interested:

Yesterday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esi_m--XqGw


Today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RggsRma9UAY

How's it going over here anyway? Don't pop in very often.

FTSE hanging onto the important 3900 level by its fingernails

cynic gap at 3881-86 yet to be filled

Can anyone let me know how to get a stockwatch of all the ftse 100 companies, I can't find a way to do it without setting one up manually, thanks

Lost,

You do have to create it manually, but to make it easier, simply copy and paste the list below:

AAL
ABF
ADM
AMEC
AML
ANTO
ATST
AU
AV
AZN
BA
BARC
BATS
BAY
BBY
BG
BLND
BLT
BNZL
BP
BSY
BT.A
CBRY
CCL
CNA
CNE
COB
CPG
CPI
CW
DGE
DRX
EMG
ENRC
EXPN
FP
FRCL
FRES
GFS
GSK
HMSO
HOME
HSBA
IAP
IHG
IMT
IPR
ISAT
ISYS
ITRK
JMAT
KAZ
KGF
LAND
LGEN
LII
LLOY
LMI
MKS
MRW
NG
NXT
OML
PFC
PNN
PRU
PSON
RB
RBS
RDSA
RDSB
REL
REX
RIO
RR
RRS
RSA
SAB
SBRY
SDR
SDRC
SGE
SHP
SL
SMIN
SN
SRP
SSE
STAN
SVT
TCG
TLW
TRIL
TSCO
TT.
ULVR
UU.
VED
VOD
WPP
WTB
XTA

Thank you

A bit strange that the feelgood factor from the DOW surge on friday didn't spill over in to our market. Looks like the UK inflation figures dragged us down, but not sure why the miners should have taken such a hit. I assume just profit taking. It would seem to me at the moment that events either side of the Atlantic are not necessarily linked.
You guys trading the indices must have had a nightmare couple of days!

Cyners from our pal across the road.....

Buy Chaucer Holdings
Argues the Bard of the Boleyn, Lucian Miers

Chaucer (CHU) is a Lloyds insurance and reinsurance company which has had its share of problems. Its underwriting performed creditably in 2008 generating 33 million of profits. This in what was generally a bad year for insurance losses . The problems lay in the investment portfolio of 1.2 billion which sustained losses of 71 million owing to injudicious forays into Hedge funds, equities and corporate bonds. This resulted in an overall loss for the year of 26 million, its first loss since 2001.

The company recently raised 75 million of share capital to shore up the balance sheet and to allow it to increase its underwriting capacity to 546 million from 519 million in 2008. Premium rates are expected to harden in the next few years and the company is upbeat about the future and confident of paying at least 4p in dividends for the next two years which gives the shares at 40p an attractive yield of 10%

The investment portfolio has also been substantially de-risked with an exit from equities, redemptions of Hedge fund assets and a commitment to less sloppy and more cautious practices in the future.

The company has also announced that it is in discussions which may or may or not lead to a bid for the company. Press speculation suggests around 60p per share.

Insurance is self evidently a risky business but with asset backing of 52p per share, net gearing of 26% ,a handy yield, and its investment strategy in order, Chaucer, whilst certainly no ten-bagger looks a good play on an upswing in the insurance cycle whether or not it stays independent. Buy at 40p.

Finally, for those who have been wise enough to follow my tips to date, I advise buying back a short in Capital and Regional (CAL) at 18.5p a fall of 82% since I tipped it as a short at 106p in October 2008.

I have also taken the first loss of my tips to date by selling Severfield Rowen (SFR) at my advised stop loss price of 140p: a 14% loss . The shares now trade at 137p. I still like the company and await the prelims on Wednesday 25th March with interest. I will update on this one this week.

Filing late on Tuesday 24th, Lucian Miers aka the Bard of the Boleyn is one of the UKs most feared short sellers.

Posted by Lucian Miers on Tue Mar 24, 11:45 AM in Comment

Yanks are up 180 and were down -4.

Typical.

What is wrong with this country........................... no please dont bother.....sigh.

for all that, FTSE is holding the important 3900 level, so provided Dow manages to behave, FTSE should wake up within the next day or two - i hope, as that should mean strong performance by the miners and oilies

Fingers crossed then cyners.

have you seen the tip above from Lucian??.