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

DOW down 103. Another bad day on the FTSE then tues?
Wed sees interims from BLT & thurs interims from RIO, BT & Diageo. Finals from Rolls Royce & Smith & Nephew.
Am hoping these figures are going to support the FTSE, even though the European Sovereign debt seems to be the fly in the ointment.

European Sovereign debt seems to be the over-riding factor at the moment, even over-shadowing some good figures from US companys today.

the PIGS will assuredly get rescued, though i'ld guess they will be left in the sweat-box for a few weeks yet

on the home (uk) front, my contacts in the advertising and fashion worlds tell me that recruitment is starting up again ....... this is a noticeable improvement from the last 12/18 months when there were no jobs on offer at all, so read into that what you will

Ftse, nicely up...twice in a row....that would be good...

EK and TW on t1ps.com suggest shorting the pound v the dollar (well EK does anyway)....I'm not so sure....the americans have terrible problems,crazy overspending and we have as well, but we are on Europe's doorstep and Britain's exports should recover with Europe's economy picking up...perhaps not the Greek's or the Portugese, but France, Holland and Germany..... now, I can imagine the UK doing quite well with demand from our european cousins helping the pound to stabilise...add to that a possible crude rebound and to me the Dollar looks set to drop.....I would suggest putting money into something else rather than sterling, euros and the greenback : perhaps the Norwegian Kroner (I think it's called the kroner...will have to check) possibly....

Nice blue day for a change and the dow has shot up.

extraordinary ..... just about on the london bell, dow had drifted back to +70 or thereabouts ...... 11 minutes later, and it has rocketed back to +150 ...... long may it last, and fingers crossed that disney's numbers are also strong (after hours today) as were coca cola's earlier

Just been informed in the Trader's room, that there is hope for Greece (CNN).

they're a bit slow! ..... i wrote similar (4804) here a couple of days back

FMOB!, as one might exclaim ..... there must be some very singed bears in NY today (now +218), and if it holds, then similar heretic burnings in london tomorrow

its a very good job then that i havent posted here recently, for i am still a bear.long term.
regards to all
jkjd

you should have had trailing stop losses in place to ensure you actually had a profit to bank - which is not remotely the same as saying this rally has legs

cynic
you are quite right in part of what you say. you overlook or miss what i did actually post recently that i had stop losses in place ALL of which were either at profit or at Cost, to take me out of my positions.
see my post on lam as just one example. see my post on gkp as another example.
where did i say this rally has legs? which is what you suggest i say. i didnt.
what happens next is of no import to this discussion.
just to add to this discussion i will offer 2 of my suggested support/ resistance levels on the ftse give or take say 10/20 points or so 5114/5015.
as always just my opiunion
regards to you and all
jkd

Walt Disney Co. earnings and revenue easily beat the street, driven by growth in media networks unit.

so, despite dow finishing well of its high (+150 at 10058) the above after-hours numbers should scarcely damage tomorrow's sentiment

Great start to the day.....crunch day for Greece....big boys bailing them out....

It's like a very very bright sunny day in the morning in Britain...it might not last....

European Union leaders will lay the foundations for a financial bailout of Greece at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, but any package will demand deep fiscal and economic adjustments by Athens in return.

this probably explains the market drifting off its highs.
in honesty, i think that's a much more acceptable deal for the world at large, even if not for greece domestically, than just ladling out VLCCs of cash without strings

just flashed up on CNN ..... it's ambiguous, but i guess it's actually positive as Dow cash +26

Number of people filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell 43,000 to 440,000 last week - fewer than economists expected.

That's still a big number over a WEEK.
2517

today london is likely to finish (very) weak as is dow.
it's the end of another volatile week and with uncertainty again returning re the rescue package for greece, heads will be ducking back beneath the parapet for the w/e