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

NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) -" U.S. stock index futures fell further on Friday after government data showed more jobs than expected were lost in September.

S&P 500 futures SPc1 plunged 11.5 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures DJc1 dropped 99 points and Nasdaq 100 futures NDc1 lost 13.75 points."

and down we go ...

Interesting, why did you shut your short?

because my charting guru who uses a very complex and sophisticated system called GANN, reckoned that was a target level a couple of weeks back

to scare you further, he also has a Dow target of 9095

For my sake I hope he is right ..

Although 4975 was a target then, surely with a projected drop of another 410 points on the DOW there is very likely to be more downside on the FTSE??? Or am I being more dense than usual?

i would have thought so, but i was just following instructions for once!
anyway, was quite happy to bank a useful profit

there's usually a weekly update, so i'll try to remember to post the conclusions here

Today's news might already be priced in, but more bad news + some weekend profit taking and some more shorting will probably end in another down day both sides of the water.. interesting day.. so far.

Stan,
May be of interest to you. A bit painful to me earlier on.

*8-)

not exactly champagne time is it, though it is good to see Dow staging a strong(ish) recovery ... it'll be interesting to see where it finishes tonight

despite Dow's strong recovery (now only -11 after -115), FTSE hardly recovered at all and has closed just below 5000.
it therefore looks to me that uk investors were too scared to follow suit lest Dow collapses later on ...... it (almost) follows that if Dow now holds these much better positions, then FTSE could recover sharply on monday

============

and as can watch sporadically during evening, have married money and mouth

To play the markets : you buy when everybody takes to the hills.....we know the economies are in a recession....but barring more banking troubles should recover unless Iran or North Korea...I still think that there should be an end of year increase with a stabilisation in the new year for a few months....all shall be revealed in the months ahead.

9400 is 50 day moving average according to investor's chronicle so a point of support. Nikkei seems the most oversold of the indices that I can see though yen has not helped

The doom merchants are at it again, or maybe just over zealous journalists trying to earn a crust! :
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Reverse mortgages may be the next subprime crisis, according to the National Consumer Law Center.

Some of the same U.S. lenders that helped drive the real estate boom with loans to home buyers who couldnt afford the payments are now targeting seniors, the center said. Brokers, who are given financial incentives to sell the loans, may be making misleading claims to potential customers, according to a report titled "Subprime Revisited, that was released today by the Boston-based NCLC.

This market is designed to serve seniors, so when we find abuses cropping up and migrating from the subprime market to the senior market, that sounds an especially loud warning bell, said Rick Jurgens, an advocate at the National Consumer Law Center, who contributed to the report.

Reverse mortgages enable people aged 62 and over who are looking for extra cash to use the equity in their homes and receive lump-sum payments, periodic checks, a line of credit, or a combination of the three. Lenders are repaid from the sale of the home when the borrowers die or move. "

" Reverse mortgages enable people aged 62 and over who are looking for extra cash.......Lenders are repaid from the sale of the home when the borrowers die or move."

As someone who periodically looks at this facility (we have no offspring and aim to go to our graves the hour after we spent our last oncer) I am fascinated by the size of the lifebelt margin the providers require.

I cannot imagine any of the lenders I have looked at getting within a mile of negative equity.

Yet another case of morbid journalism.

TP

Without wishing to tap into a confidential source, Cynic, what is your GANN Guru's stance on the 9095 target (DOW) now that we are heading back to the 10000 level again? Does he see this as just a blip up, or another push to new highs?

i'll have to check tomorrow .... stuff's at the office

i only get a weekly update from "guru", but on Dow he said

"currently 9600 ..... stay short with a target of 9095 ..... lower the stop-loss so as to trigger on any rise above 9850"

Dow certainly hit 9830 last night, and just possibly spiked above that

Cheers. Brave call to go short, imo, but I quite often find it difficult to see the 'bigger picture', so he's probably right.

High last night was 9836.52!

US banks reporting season starts next week, should stir up the market.