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

and you keep accumulating paper profits without banking any, and then you can watch them fritter away and wring your hands, saying if only

let us know when you stop 'considering shorting the Dow' and actually do it

why do you need to follow what i do?
are you incapable of making your own decisions?
for sure i have already reduced my market exposure this morning

ah, only reduced ?

so, you are undecided then

:-)

did you get any grey matter at birth, or is it just a big black hole in your skull?

What about your long term holdings like AFR cynic ?

AFR is like my cock
i have been holding it for a long time and am now quite attached and certainly have no intention of having it reduced!

As we are talking so personally ,my holdings too big and probably needs reducing .

i know a rabbi who'll do that for you ...... better him that the shochet

for camelot, as seemingly he cannot make his own decisions ....... i went (modestly) short dow yesterday, and i think that may prove to be very profitable ...... it looks to me as though the long awaited and o'due correction is about to get under way

Probably right. From Bloomberg:
"Alcoa reporting missed analysts forecats & valuations are looking a bit stretched, said Chris Hall, who helps manage about $3.7 billion at Argo Investments in Adelaide, Australia. No ones disputing theres going to be a recovery, but its the question of magnitude thats got people a little bit cautious. Investors are waiting for evidence earnings are sustainable beyond the benefits of stimulus measures.

The decline in U.S. futures indicated the Dow Jones Industrial Average may retreat after yesterday closing above 11,000 for the first time since September 2008."

Well that settles it then, if that is what Boomberg are predicting that will probably be the best buy signal you are going to get this week! It's when they advise buying I get worried :o))

I did do a bit more research & found that CNN tended to agree with them, so based on the premise that two wrongs make a right, everyone should therefore be long FTSE & DOW, CC? ;o)

Exactly Harry, If you are so inclined you can make money trading both up and down of course, but I for one wouldn't go short or long and get on a plane for a week hoping with fingers crossed I'd called it right on my return. :o)

new high on dow yesterday (13th)

and now trading higher still

As long as we're still getting higher highs and higher lows, the trend is up. Simply no point in trying to catch a precise top or bottom - can be darned expensive. If the market wants to fall, it will tell you by taking out a recent low. Until such time, keep your powder dry.

dow heading for 12000,edit lol

I hope not!

skinny, are you short the Dow then?
12K looks like the ideal place for the Dow to head. Then it can crash down around us!

cynic are you still short the DJIA?