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

Goldfinger for gods sake ring the samaritans !!!!! You've turned in to a doomster...

GF did you keep BOK ?

yep, thats the one trader ive got left.... sorry forgot W Hill aswell jimmy.

Dooooooooooooooooooooooooomed we are............ LOL.

Ill get you lads some pro analysis on the markets hold on a few mins.

From Inv inteligence this morning.....

"The Unsinkable Stock Market." - Barrons*

How apt. The strength of the current equity markets has caught many - including us - off guard. From the March 9 lows, the S&P500 Index is up a stunning 57.9%; Nasdaq Composite 68.1%. In Europe, the DAX Index surged by 54.5% in the last six months while the CAC40 Index soared 52%.

Even more bullish are the Asian markets: the Indian Sensex rocketed 105.2% over the same period; Hang Seng Index nearly doubled (90.6%). Not to be left behind, the Russian RTS Index jumped 83.6%. All these stunning gains propelled the MSCI World Index into a 65.5% gain since March.



The FTSE100 Index, unfortunately, is a laggard. Against the MSCI World Index, it is currently 20% behind (+46%). Still, its technical picture is bullish and remains on a strong uptrend (see above).

The FTSE250 Index is stronger. Another 7% advance - which should not to too difficult in the current environment - would push the index within the vicinity of the psychological 10,000 level (see right).

In last Mondays hotline, we were pretty defensive given that the rally looks overstretched. Events over the last week had not allayed our fears of a potential correction, including: One, deeply overbought p&f breadth indices. For example, the FTSE100 bull trend is at its highest level ever. Two, the economic headwinds remain strong, including housing and credit. See, for example, this link from Reuters**. Finally, number three, strong insider selling (see Fridays report). But, we are reluctant to fight the trend. We are currently net-long. But we are looking to short stocks that are technically vulnerable.

* 16 Sept. See: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB125313046105017007.html?mod=BOL_hps_popview

**See: http://www.reuters.com/article/wtUSInvestingNews/idUSTRE58G5U320090917



Index Breadth




The mid-cap p&f breadth index corrected 5% last Friday even though the underlying index dropped by only 0.6%.

To us, this indicates that the breadth is currently too overbought, increasing chances of a sharp pullback. A fall to near low 70s is on the cards this week.

Washout on the markets today if you are just going long.

Take it your in bear mode cyners?.

Well i dont see any Autumn correction today GF ,,,,maybe you meant your Autumn collection ,,have you been dressmaking over the summer ,if so make sure you get some tasty models to show them off and post the pictures on here...:-)

Although the DOW is solidly back down under 10000, I can't see any signs on the chart on Page 1 to indicate a further fall past the 25 DMA. Anyone else see something that I don't. I find it easy to look at a historical chart & see the indicators & the expected chart movement, but it's not quite so easy predicting the future falls.

my chartist guru is looking for (expecting?) a correction back to 9240 with a stop-loss at 10025

halifax (and others) ...... so is the strategy to sit tight, reduce holdings, or even short? ...... i am inclined to reduce and maybe take a short, either on the indices or on specific stocks

have reduced some holdings and waiting to see how the Dow future behaves tomorrow, a FTSE short needs a fairly tight stop loss.

Amazing. DOW was -27 first thing this morning & now is + 125! FTSE short would have been a brave call halifax! (Easy to say with hindsight ;o) )

Harry quite right so a tight stop loss worked, are we entering another period of increased volatility?

i have a small FTSE short still running, more as insurance than anything else ..... if markets slump, then won't do me much good, but the converse is also true!

cynic - I've just done the same thing for the similar reasons!

Pure Gambling...

Bet its not :-)

Too volatile ,a bet on the DOW or FTSE going up or down right now is a gamble.
Your just speculating on the run and predicting a fall .

No - just a bit of hedging on overnight long positions.

Thats why its gambling DOW +124

Looks like a load of M&A activity in the U.S. has bolstered the DOW. My guess is the FTSE will follow suit on tuesday but am tempted to watch for a profit taking window later in the week as this mini rally is likley to run out of steam, imo.
Can't fathom where the gold price is now going. Have a few stocks which I bought based on gold going up past the $1000 level & staying there for a while, but not confident I have made the right call.