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

"Bargains amongst the miners" well I thought they were first thing this am, getting even cheaper now. Just hope this is not a repeat of augusts sell off.

XTA now down at 100 day average.

Al. were down to 675 recently

don't confuse gold with copper, zinc, nickel etc .... totally different forces driving

granted.

Cable seems to have corrected today with little effect on gold price

i recommend regular viewing of the charts i posted at the beginning .... for instance, note that FTSE is now nestling exactly on 50 dma .... how Dow finishes tonight (pretty volatile at the moment) could well influenece whether or not this level is broken with any significance or a bounce instigated

Evening Mr C. Looked into the IG markets cfd platform, quite easy to use, once you get into it.

Am currently short at 6475 on the FTSE. Only a small contract but am keeping a watchful eye on both FTSE and Wall Street real time charts. My gut feel says this will drop tonight, by how much, well that's another question. 6440 would be a nice start.

Feeling uneasy about the markets at the moment, have gone to 30% cash and would go higher if opportunity presents itself. Will limit myself to taking small positions on the ftse 100, mainly short ones, as always it's just a matter of timing.

FTSE will only move relative to Dow during "closed time" ..... if you have the time and inclination to watch throughout the evening(s), the Dow (or S&P or Nasdaq) can be quite exciting or scary or even profitable to trade, depending on your mood.

if you are now using IG for CFD trading, then Damian is not bad chap to talk to with regard to index charts, but of course he only works UK office hours

Evening spit...

did the same a couple of day ago on the ISA Porfolio. Interestingly my higher risk shares are bucking the downtrend, but don't mention the bankers !


Just looked at the charts - dropping nicely.

Thanks Cynic, will keep Damian in mind.

Am currently overseas on work stuff, so family won't mind if I am in front of a computer screen most evenings.

Just as the only guys who made money in old gold rush days were the sellers of picks and shovels, I think the only guys who make money out of Elliot waves are the guys who sell the books telling us all how to get rich using them... and yep, they are a wonderous hindsight tool. Still, no doubt we'll get an 'expert' tell us we're wrong. (again...)

i like that analogy ..... i have used same for the likes of PFC (qv)

Ah well, win some, lose some. Time for R&R.

Seems like strong support at 13450. FTSE seems to follow Dow during trading hours and dow futures out of them!

Dow is all over the place, but certainly trying to finish on at least a strongish note ..... believe 13650 is quite a critical number

this is all looking very gruesome unless you are running shorts and/or long bullion ..... nevertheless, we are still a very long way from being in a bear market, but watch out!

yet again, i suggest you take a look at the various charts that i posted at the beginning, and then make your own mind up as to whether (some of) the indices are about to bounce, or if traffic remains firmly south-bound

Broke through the 13450 support and down to the 13380 support from which it has bounced

If dow ends at these level then will be an interesting start for the ftse 100 with opening below support of 6400. Will take a view tomorrow morning, I have no open positions at moment.

am running shorts in Dow, NRK and SOLA .... closed short FTSE prematurely, albeit at a respectable profit