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

Good point DD, but when you do a back testing exercise like I did, it does leave you a bit deflated.

Its all about getting a happy medium I guess.

The first bit of good news presaged further good news and created a kind of virtuous circle. ...... that much is very true, but to comment with hindsight that one could have made more by hanging on, is merely the flip-side of the foolish who bemoan that they should have banked the profit when it was available.

at least today, i have followed my own instinct and banked several profitable positions, including one in WOS, which i only bought this morning, and now 2/3 of FTSE long ..... as i mentioned elsewhere (SRV?), i think the markets are starting to look frothy, so fully expect to be able to buy WOS back cheaper than at which i sold ..... and if not, so what?

Good comment Cynic ......

Regards
Amar

The other point is that there are so many changes of direction in shares atm that it would be impossible to buy at the bottom and sell at the top.

If you can make a profit no matter what it is, in my opinion you're doing bloody well! FWIW, over the past 2 weeks I've managed to bank a good profit on TAN;CBM;XTA;CFM and ANTO. Somehow AFR escaped me!

I think the G20 statement comes out at 1500 hours could be very volatile possibility of buy rumour sell news,got well and truly trounced overnight, very silly!

almost guaranteed to be the usual load of pre-written hot air ....... you need to revisit the relevant episode of "Yes Prime Minister"!

crazy times ..... not a day to be away from the screen playing golf, even if it is warm and sunny!

now gone long Dow and bought back into WOS ...... more than happy to have missed greater profits, but made enough

shall watch with a view to shorting Dow and/or FTSE o'night as surely a rise of the current magnitude cannot be sustained much longer without a correction ..... shall be off screen for a while, so closed out profit on both Dow and FTSE

Getting it all wrong again.

Buy it drops. Sell it rises :O(

Keaydian ................

We all have a day like that sometimes ..........

Cheer up ............. move on ............. you will come up trumps .........

Regards
Amar

Thanks Amar.

Can't make up my mind as to the likelihood of a friday afternoon selloff, or not. DOW futures currently -48 & some UK stocks getting trimmed back this morning. Have sold quite a few profitable stocks over the last day & now looking to get back in after a lurch down, which doesn't seem to be happening yet!
Are you short DOW yet Cynic, or anyone, or too risky?

H, don't forget it's Non-Farm Payroll numbers day in the US today, usually has an affect... but please don't ask me which way -):

good morning Harry ...... i opened a Dow short very late yesterday evening; contemplated holding it o'night but took the prudent course and modest profit 20 minutes later.

my gut feeling is that the markets will be down tonight as the heady rises and poilticos hot air are all digested

Nikkei and HK were ones to short last night, did the former in a small way with a limit which went well unlike the night before when it proved highly destructive! Everything looking bullish so far today with dollar weakening,oil rising.Sure this is a temporary rally rather than the real thing and they have a habit of going well beyond all expectations .Quite a bit of resistance at 8250 on Dow from chart if it gets that far or 860 s@p. Shall put sell orders in there

Thanks all. Having got back from walking the dog, DOW futures are now showing -4 points, so as I have said before, looking at futures figures too early isn't always much of a guide.
Maybe it will be the non-farm payroll & the jobless figures which will turn the market. Failing that, Bernanke is addressing the nation later in the day! Lets hope the feelgood factor persists.

663k 3 less than expected,what now?

think they were actually much as expected, and certainly Dow is now indicating +81 ...... i'm off to my excellent fishmonger and shall consider further on my return ..... common sense prob says do nowt, and my gut feel is still that NY (and maybe London) will finish red

Talking of fish I gather that part of the reason that there are so many Somali pirates is that illegal foreign fishing companies harvest heir crop in their waters whilst other unscrupulous ships dump poisonous cargoes into the sea there, hope your monger sources locally!

not sure when there would ever have been an abundance of fish in Persian (sic!) Gulf that would have fed the current much-enlarged population ...... in any case, the Somali coast has been the happy hunting ground for pirates for several centuries, as a single boat = a multitude of netsful of fish!

anyway, hake from Cornwall I believe, oysters from Mersea and decent unsoaked scallops from somewhere off UK