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

Just as a matter of interest, does the USA run the same tax year as the UK? That would make for an interesting sell-off with investors locking in profits/losses for the current tax year. (Presumably also options expiry?)

no .... usa tax year = calendar year

Yup sell off by the end of December and accounting has to be in by 15th April..

i repeat post 4930 with good reason

pay attention ...... potential serious resistance and thus level for sell-off effectively reached on Dow ...... target was 10780; currently 10765

And then again Cynic, if by some miracle the Dow does not sell off, up-trend intact, trend is your friend blah, blah blah next target for Dow could be 11216! Personally not going to test it either way, staying well clear for the moment:o)

i am perfectly happy to have shorted, albeit that i agree about trend/friend

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

and certainly looking a fairly smart move at the moment

and probably still not too late to short Dow

I can't decide if the current correction is just a combination of quadruple witching, end of U.K. tax year, pre-election tension & year end reporting, or something else entirely. A number of market watchers (journalists mainly!) seem to think that many weak bulls are taking profit now & waiting for a clear market direction after the election.
Short FTSE, imo, though not so sure DOW.

indices are for trading ...... Dow is o'bought and o'due a (potentially heavy) correction ...... as for FTSE, leave alone for now

I agree with you on that one Harry, I keep hitting myself over the head with a golf club, for what it's worth and trade what I see not what I wan't to see, and if confused stay out.

should have cashed some Dow profit earlier .... never mind; still expect the correction to happen, and if it doesn't then plenty of long positions to (more than) compensate

interesting tussle as to whether or not Dow can break 10780 with any impetus - so far, not so

"Six arrested in FSA and SOCA insider dealing investigation
In the first operation carried out jointly between the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), 16 addresses have been searched this morning in London, the South East and Oxfordshire in the FSAs largest ever operation against insider dealing.
Documents and computers have been seized from residential and business premises.
Six men including two senior city professionals at leading city institutions and one city professional at a hedge fund have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in a sophisticated and long-running insider dealing ring.
It is believed that the city professionals passed inside information to traders (either directly or via middlemen) who traded based on this information and have made significant profits as a result.
The operation was carried out by 143 FSA personnel together with officers from SOCA as part of a joint investigation that commenced in late 2007.
No further details can be confirmed at this time."

Just hope the two professionals didn't work for any company in which I am currently a stock holder!

i still think i must be the biggest long term bear here. i just dont believe that government bail outs and quantitive easing can resolve deep underlying problems. i may well be wrong. i do hope so because ive been long the market for quite some time. but still very cautious.
regards
jkd

i'm not a long term bear by any means, for i am currently short Dow, though purely because it looks severely o'bought to me ...... that said, the trend is currently against me, though i'll stay with it for now

Dow has made 3 new highs today and currently working on a 4th, the trend is winning. Ftse as usual is aimlessly following like a lost puppy! Something has to give but I aint calling it..

DOW +103, Cynic. Not sure when you started your short, but trust you haven't had to sell the family silver???

silver went ages ago.... down to the brass now..:)

not that bad, but shall consider whether or not to cut losses ..... can't win every time

Cynic, don't mean to butt in but DOW is not really showing any signs of weakness (on the daily chart) - no swing lows have been taken out. This market ain't ready for big shorts yet. It's stair-stepping ever higher. I hate it when it does this...but in the end, the market goes where it wants to.

Hmmmmm...on a closer look, I notice the DOW has completed an AB-CD pattern terminating at the current high. Could be interesting tomorrow.