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

Youve been saying that now cyners for the last 4 days.

My feeling is that politics have taken over the agenda for the City and it looks like our Gordon is going to have a tough time next week with all the World leaders, plus lets not forget we start the US reporting season starting monday onwards so it could be bad tactics to be top heavy going into next week.

Im sure all the City wide boys are aware.

Daily bets in the morning chaps, dont get caught holding the baby going into next week and being the wrong side of the market.

Of course I speak with limited knowledge of indicies as i have previously declared, but Ive just got this feeling after the last few days....

Perhaps you should go long ftse/ short dow, cynic

i made enough for a decent dinner long dow last night, which i closed, and have stayed long ftse

Dinner with a suitable companion I hope

unsuitable would be more fun

not around too much today so have banked some prudent profits ...... it seems to me that even if the markets are generally continuing north for the moment, this has been such a strong week that a reaction is due, especially as it is friday and very close to both month and fiscal year end

money (profits) in the bank are never a bad thing, and it leaves me nicely liquid should the markets fall to leave some useful buying opportunities

Yes cyners, thats a politicians summing up of youve got it wrong directionaly in past few days and youve taken your dosh off the table because you now think we are heading down.

Nice one.

We all get it wrong you know.

Rock on pineapple bonce.

Dollar strengthening today look out bulls!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/5062625/FTSE-100-and-Dow-Jones-predicted-to-tumble-28pc.html

courtesy of boss of IG Index

am very glad indeed i drew in my horns on Friday, and have taken more profits today before all got frittered away, a course which i have dismally failed to take in the past.

i really don't know where all is headed, though a pull-back was always on the cards, and that was before the politicians started bickering among themselves

DOW tipped to open down 180 points at present.
Not sure if going long FTSE is the thing to do yet. More downside to come imo.

GM + Chrysler
these arrogant bastards don't deserve to be saved.
i suspect that at the end of the day, there will be a forced merger and a lot of overpaid and totally inept managers sacked.
inevitably a slab of the innocent workforce will also be sacrificed, but it has amazed me or many years how any of these auto m'facturers ever make a profit, for they have to sell an obscene number of new cars every year just to break even.

Don't get too worked up. It's always been a question of over capacity but with people in jobs. Something has to give eventually. Nothing you or I can do about it. I suspect, as you say, they are too big to survive in today's climate. Looks like the jobless figures are due to rise again:
"The Obama administration autos task force rejected the turnaround plans of General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, forcing out GM's CEO Rick Wagoner, and warned both could be put through bankruptcy to slash debts. The news sent equity markets overseas lower by more than 2%. A potential bankruptcy for the auto industry should send traders to the sidelines and look to lock in profits from last weeks gains."

i'm not worked up exactly .... it's just that we have almost never come across an efficient US biz, though they all think they know it all and are God's gift!

The managers should have a read of Durable car ownership re. Morris Minor's in their retirement (Charles Ware).Is the system of buying new cars every 3 years and then binning them fundamentally flawed! Built-in obsolescence, excessive hype, ecological cost etc., keeping up with Jones'.An old Moggy will do 40mpg, do 90mph safely with appropriate mods,have free road tax and cheap insurance and be 50+years old. Where is the progress?

well as expected ftse didn't manage to stay above 4000 for long, starting it's journey down again. Question is how long can the dollar stay strong? This is clearly affecting commodity stocks, as well as worsening news on global GDP.

China is going to start making big waves about US fiscal policy and will be looking at setting up it's own reserve currency, certainly in asia. Until the subsequent weakening of the dollar, commodities and therefore ftse will weaken, banks will come into negative focus again after such a stella rise, protectionism will resurface in next week as G20 spend alot of time talking about doing things.

negative expectations surely outweigh positive, when will it end?

Will it end in the next quarter? When will dollar weaken? When will inflation return? That's when we'll get growth in equities that is a true bull market and not a technical rally. I'm short and going with the trend.

Watched Bloomberg last night after going long wti.nikkei, ftse,s@p, Hong kong from close(all closed now). Bloke from IG interviewed reckoned it was a trader's not investors market at the moment ie short term USD strength.The drop on Dow yesterday wasn't GM/Chrysler as their weighting is small but general sentiment vix hit 45 highest for several months. One trader said 760 s@p was key support and likely to be tested this week with Jobs data on Friday . Again it was a last hour rally(short termers taking profit?). Yesterday could also have been longs taking profits but ISA rally fund managers talking things up to get investors locked in could still have an effect...sidelined

in other words he had no idea at all!
in fact, i think US on reflection will applaud the fact that GM and Chrysler were given short shrift

Lucky Alphonse had another good day at the races and is looking to continue it with a FTSE long (3908) while NY is open and looking strong ..... shall prob encash at least some of that during the course of the evening