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

Still....one bad big egg in the middle east should not send shivers like it has.....very strong rebound to come now with bargains being snapped up ?.

Not sure you are right rf. One very unexpected, wealthy, oil rich bad egg can shake confidence in all the other eggs. The bad egg in question being the Dubai Sovereign wealth fund. Repercussions going to ripple out for a while, imo, & Dubai World creditors are also going to be short of cash.
DOW closed today so "A good day to release bad news" !!!!! Incredible that the LSE was also out of action for almost half the day. I feel a conspiracy theory coming on! ;o)

absolute carnage yet again .... i'm sure there's a lot of quick money to be made in either direction, but it would be a brave - nay, foolhardy - chap to take the plunge

About the palm beach sinking...I remember that the Osaka airport (Japan) sunk for ages before stabilising.....hope that it stops for the people concerned.

Plunge I've been taking and at the moment I've forgotten how to swim

This is ridiculous market panick at the moment...good time to pick up stocks at knock down prices...one or two crazy sp's out there....

I wouldn't call this a panic RF it is only 3.5% ish, there are some cheap looking prices but imo I think they will get cheaper yet.
2517

Bit of a rebound going on....TLW up a touch...(proper bell weather that)...I thinks that's the term used...but check out one or 2 Aim stocks...if you have a bit of spare capital...this might be a great time...

FTSE now only -18 after -90, but caution and/or fast fingers and feet required ..... the major question is Dubai going to default or just pay later than forecast? ..... my guess is the former, as the (arab) world cannot afford otherwise, not least because there is a major financial scandal ($22bn springs to mind) involving 2 of the major saudi families already in progress.

all a bit hairy-scary and deciding to hang on and sit tight (indeed i put a bit of money back in) instead of biting the bullet and cutting, for once looks to have been the right decision .... i hope next week continues to support that view

a short day on Wall Street saw an adequate performance ..... just before opening it was being called -200 and finished -154 ..... early next week will give an indication as to how unnerved the markets are following the dubai shambles ..... my guess is that there will be a realisation that dubai will not (be allowed to) default .... that does not necessarily mean that financials will be a good bet (personally, i hold none and cannot enthuse about them anyway), but the rest of the market may well continue ticking up

though Uncle AD has put on a front of playing hard-ball with naughty nephew Dubai, there is still no doubt at all in my mind that this shambles will not be allowed to become a full-blown disaster ..... i would be more than a little surprised if the markets, perhaps after an initial wobble, did not concur with that view

One problem seems to be that the value of the property investments in Dubai World have recently gone down by 30%. That could mean a good buying opportunity or a mad rush for the exits by many other owners. I favour the latter.
Am tempted to take any profit I have this side of Xmas, given that volumes will fall over the next 4 weeks, & be ready for the New Year with my meagre credit balance.
RBS & HSBC seem to have the biggest exposure to Dubai of the banks, so am thankful that I only have LLOY!!! More luck than judgement methinks. Was sorely tempted by HSBC but never by RBS.
With Africa Nations & World Cup footy next year may be interesting to have a stake in the the gambling, sportswear or booze stocks.?

slightly but only just off topic .....
i travel quite frequently to dubai on biz, and i have been saying for a very long time that the hotel + leisure industry there cannot continue to milk their clients for long before they desert in droves .....
and so it is proving to be, and quite rightly so
the jumeirah stretch, where all the tourist hotels are located, is farcically expensive ..... the catering standards are second-rate, but you'll pay about 50.00 a head, and that is without wine (minimum 45 a bottle for some rubbish) or beer (7.00 a bottle).

whatever they may like to pretend, you will now rattle in the hotels, as was already the case at the end of last year ..... indeed, i saw a report that even the much-hyped atlantis is now slashing its rates.

in contrast, if you know where you are going in "old city", you can eat very well, albeit quite simply for 10.00 a head without wine/beer (many/most places are unlicenced).

Conversely, it looks as though the hotels in South Africa are all fully booked for the duration of the World Cup, at extortionate rates. Rental accomodation is now going at equally daft rates. No doubt the big hotel chains are pretty savvy when it comes to a captive market.

no surprises there then .... however, dubai has no world cup or similar and has just been greedy, greedy, greedy for year after year, and at long last it's coming home to roost - shame innit

i confess i also have little sympathy for the foreigners who allowed themselves to be mugged by buying into the so-called "can't fail" dubai property boom ..... twas always built on sand!

Will be interesting to see if the fallout affects the F1 GP in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi next year. If it's too expensive to go, then another sport may be trimmed back. Abu Dhabi seems to be the richest of the UAE, so on paper, all should be o.k.???
Of course Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has interests near me at Newmarket, so the Godolphin string of horses may not be returning in 2010. Knock on effect unkown atm.

oxymoron or what????? .... just released ex USA

Private-sector jobs declined 169,000 in November - 8th consecutive month of improvement, says payroll processor ADP.

with difficulty have followed my own oft-stated advice and banked some profits just before the close

As there seems to be no consensus of opinion as to whether we should all be bulls or bears, (FT blog, brokers even reckon the banks are too toppy atm) I am doing the same with any stocks which show more than 10% profit. Have sold some PCI, AFR, SBT & HLO recently. Just hope they will dip enough to get back in below my sell price! 'A bird in the hand......& all that'! The utilities meter reader came round the other day, so I am sure there is going to be a nasty surprise in the New Year mail.