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 b4 anyone asks, i shut ftse short this morning at a small loss .... overall result of latest escapade was positively neutral

Splat - Hey, don't hold your breath mate only 5 points, I expect Chelsea to reduce that to 2 on Sat (providing we beat Stoke away of course), last games mighty Hull :o) to stuff you at there place and Everton to beat mighty Portsmouth at home! Not over till the fat lady sings! :o))

I don't need to hold my breath Chris, I only said "at least we're higher than your shower :-))) " not that we will finish higher! :-0 by the way, I've heard a few fat ladies singing, and today!! :-)

Aye, and a fat spanish waiter might join her tonight eh! :o))

looks like it !

Dow short going well :-)

some INDU covered + precisely 100

Nice one splat - Good Luck v Chelsea :o)

thanks CC.
Luck against Chelsea? Won't be needing that....in the same way we won't be needing Torres, Gerrard and Benitez next season! :-)

Dow looks fcuked

blood and guts on wall street - currently down 136
better hope for a decent performance there on monday, or london will have bad squits again

Dow
topsy-turvy market or what! ..... have crashed on friday, today it is (currently) +140, yet nothing has fundamentally changed

Greek bail out has been agreed and confirmed today,i think.
regards
jkd

it was never going to be otherwise

they may have a bail out, but I am waiting to find out when greece has to repay this money

I see this morning, the communist party has occupied the Parthenon

general strike to follow

general election (again) wont be far off neither will be the army (again)

fat lady not singing yet

FTSE -145, DOW -245 so far today & a gross understatement to sum it up:
CNN -""I think a little volatility is back," said Dave Hinnenkamp, CEO of KDV Wealth Management. "We're getting triple-digit moves (on the Dow) like we haven't seen in a while. We've had some big moves but the market hasn't gone anywhere."

On Tuesday, the CBOE Volatility index (VIX), or the VIX, Wall-Street's so-called fear gauge, spiked 17% to hit the highest level since Feb. 11.

Hinnenkamp said there's a battle going on between the improved earnings and everything else - including the euro zone debt issues, the oil spill and China's efforts to curb inflation without slowing growth."

To me, this is the a sort of second dip......not happy about it as I am going long (or stuck in there) on most things....just praying for a small rebound now....

total bloodbath yet again with very few exceptions ....... i didn't remotely have the balls to (keep) open a short the other day

Some stocks now looking mighty cheap & maybe worth picking up soon.
CNN have DOW futures at +16 but Bloomberg have -35 (at 09.11 hrs), so based on an average of the two, U.S. trading is not going to support us later on today.
If the tories get in on thursday I can see a big bounce coming in U.K. stocks.

Well the second dip is here.....costing me a packet in one way or another.....