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

OK so back to current thread, so we are forming a resistance at 4500, could there be support on 200ma, just a week and a bit before end May, sentiment is changing in my opinion to the downside, crude is ahead of itself as already commented on, governments continue to spend on shoring up financial markets, lots of pain is being stored up. However short term, if it holds above 4500 we might see 5000 before end summer as the trend is your friend, on probably low volumes and then I really think reality will set in. personally I'm already nervous.

There's still a long way for this bear to run, wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the last rally in the big bad bear. We've had an 18% rally last spring, 10% late summer, 20% october and november and now one in late 20's%, top of bear trend around 5000, could easily have retest of lows, hopefully they'll hold, if they don't.........next stop anyone? In great depression there was a 50% rally then it tanked. I don't think we'll get history repeating that this time because..

On the plus side when inflation does eventually kick back in, should actually be good for stock prices even if people have less expendable in pocket, wouldn't like to be on that tight rope of monetary policy though, as stated above until the banks reduce write-offs we wont really get going even if they are benefiting from great spreads on lending.

fascinating stuff markets.

UK has a triple A rating (albeit negative)!!! The US sub-prime mortgages were packaged under an AAA rating I believe. I rest my case.
Today's FTSE drop seems to be attributable to this revised rating, so once that has drifted off the front pages am hoping for a bounce.

Yes Harry long ftse/short dax, wonder who got in the other way round before the announcement ?

a good day for banking some profits

managed to get away 50% od BRR at pretty much today's top for a small profit
banked juicy profit on 50% TLW as sp now touching all time high, so pull back much more likely than strong progress
banked further juicy profit on 40% HOIL, as was pretty o'weight there

war chest now has some decent funds for reinvesting in due course

Well Done Cynic ............... your patience deserves every success.

Regards
Amar

patient i am not .... on the other hand, i sometimes remember my own adage that a profit ain't a profit until it's banked

considering the general beastliness, could have had a much worse day .... even managed to make 100 on Dow long, which at least will pay the milk and paper bills

Crumbs Cynic - how much milk and paper do you consume in a week?

do you claim milk and papers as expenses? lol

No - it's only MPs who do that!

i wish someone would pay my sky tv subscription as i found out i'm paying for a mr. g.brown sky tv. no wonder he is a fat git sitting watching tv ALL day. him and that bulemic prescott, lol and tinutus jack straw and blind blunkett.......what a country of leaders we are!

definitely tax allowable trading expenses ..... milk is for soothing the burnt fingers, and the papers are used for other extremities when things go from bad to worse!

Sideways movement for the FTSE & DOW during may, with no sign yet of a downwards trend. Living in hope!

Oil tipped by OPEC to reach $75 pb, house builders & miners keeping the stock market bouyant, Russian investors piling in to the Moscow exchange, house prices up during the last month & fund managers are increasing their share holdings. (All FT headlines).
DOW futures currently +136 & the froth on the markets looks likely to continue for the time being. Those still sitting on cash must be looking longingly at the current rally.

some of us are looking at the potential frothiness of the market and taking some money off the table

and having looked at the later trading in NY, my bet (but not my money!) is that there will be a sharp pull-back tomorrow ...... all i have done is reduce my general exposure a bit

Nevertheless, the markets are buzzing at present & I am glad I am in rather than just watching. Bound to be a correction soon, but not sure if it will be tomorrow.

As RIO is a FTSE100 constituent, I reckon it may drag the miners & market down on friday with it's news of a probable, unexpected rights issue.

EDIT: Well I called that totally wrong. Both BLT & RIO up 10% already today (5th).

it's been very quiet on here recently. not surprising since ftse has been going sideways for what seems so long, since 7th may in a circa 200 point range. is it about to break out? or has it already done so today? i'm not sure what to make of this, traditional technicals suggest that such sideways movements usually break out in the direction of the move into it, in this case that would be upwards. if it breaks upwards it is suggested it will move at the very least the width of the sideways congestion band being circa 200 points. above the upper band, and most probably as much as the initial move up into the original lower band which is often much greater.
assuming upper band level to be say 4520 this would suggest a minimum targeted price of 4720 sh.and maybe more.
we are now approaching the 2nd quarter end where we often see lows and highs made that continue and hold into the next quarter.
if we are bullish we might want to see some lower prices over next few days and look to buy into the lows with some tight stop losses available to us.
if we are bearish we might like to do the same although those same tight stop losses may not be available to us.although it may be to some, depending on the time scale being used.
i'm still nett long but still long term bearish, plenty of stocks such as miners look very overbought based on rsi etc.
the last couple of days or so have proven to me once again how important it is to have a selection of both longs and shorts in my trading portfolio.
any views anyone? have we broken to the downside? or will we recover and continue up?
regards
jkd

Any good news due? Looks like down before up.