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

A cautionary note issued for monday's FTSE, as Cable & Wireless demerger set to affect the index:
"Indices At expected trading prices, we would expect CWW to just scrape into
the FTSE100 (decision Friday evening) and MSCI mid-cap indices but for CWC to
drop out. We estimate CWC selling pressure from index trackers equates to c.25m
shares from FTSE100 and c.105m from MSCI (1%, 4% shares outstanding)."

Car phone warehouse group and talktalk begin trading Monday I believe.

if i'd held on, the pain would now be much worse ..... it's all part of the discipline i try to instil in myself, relating to banking good profits and dumping bad holdings .... it certainly helps that i regularly preach as much here

Vin de table then tonight Cynic, as opposed to the usual Chateau bottled?

don't be daft! .... i'm lucky enough to have bought (fine) wines over many years, so i/we are ridiculously spoilt even on an everyday basis.

actually, i have just checked what has happened to me financially over the last week ..... banked profits showed i lost 17.00(!), but there is an "uncashed" profit in the same period of about 5k ..... not complaining a lot to say the least, though if DES disappoints badly next week, i shall not be best pleased

A nasty little correction today on the FTSE. DOW futures -42 so maybe more to come this afternoon? Looking to invest my ISA money, but not sure if it's wise this side of an election due to market uncertainty.
(Having done minimal research, looks like Greece is to blame for the drop today, again!).

Harry - interesting times! I've put @80% of my pension and ISA into cash until after the election. I can't help feeling we are due a sell off whoever wins.

Trouble is that cash ISA rates are so low, that a stock ISA is much more attractive. But as you say, may be best to wait 'til after 1st week in May.

Harry, I mean I now have my share ISA @80% in cash & 20% invested.

Ah, sorry, now I understand. Big cash waiting in the wings then? ;o)

I also believe that to be a wise move.
2517

DJIA nearing 11000 will that be the tipping point?

11100 tops

And what then cynic ? ,,you've been saying that for ages (and going short) ,you will be right eventually but at what cost ? i must say it looks rather toppy to me ,but i dont know how you can call it.

i went short, called it wrong and cut my losses ...... nevertheless, markets cannot rise (or fall) indefinitely without a consolidation - aka a tumble of greater or lesser magnitude

my concern at the moment is to curb my own enthusiasm and to cut exposure somewhat before the event, but that's quite a difficult call when so many stocks are performing well

Am I thick or what? Why would the markets fall when interest rates are so low, trend is well intact, plenty of bad news out there and anticipation of forthcoming armegeddon is well documented but they keep going up. Why fight it, just go with the flow with trailing stop losses or is that just to simples?

it is merely an obvious observation that no market can continue indefinitely in one direction ..... as it happens, the Dow charts indicate that a (significant) pullback is imminent - but as i often say, charts are merely tools and not the gospel

thus i am not advocating shorting, for that would certainly go against the current impetus, but merely taking prudent steps to avoid being singed .... stop losses are one way of doing it

Cynic I totally agree with your philosophy re markets indefinately going in one direction, every so called market expert on the planet bombard us on TV (Bloomberg and Cnbc) and my hotmail inbox with comments like 'Get out of this suckers rally now' etc etc. As you say stop losses if you are still long have to be key, or just take profits or stay out end of! :o)

i certainly don't hold with the "suckers rally" nonsense any more than i did with double-dip recession, but (sharpish) pullback on Dow is 120% on the cards within the next few weeks or even sooner

Cynic absolutely, but can you guarantee it? and there lies the rub and as you have proved to blindly go short against the present trend ends with taking an unnecessary loss. But then again as they say, no pain no gain eh!