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

wait for Osbourne's next statement on how dire the uk's economic situation really is, do we expect good news?, government spending slashed, taxes(probably VAT 20%) raised.

the picture painted will assuredly be very black .... then when the "cure" then starts to work, it'll be "told you so"

cynic so how will the FTSE react to the "black" news?

But we all know the picture is black, don't we.

Is that not already accounted for in the value of the FTSE?

I thought what we were waiting for was someone in charge prepared to admit it and to tell us we have to take the medicine.

Two percent added to the cost of goods for VAT. If that is going to help then it gets my vote. Doubling VAT would be harder to tolerate - but we don't take that sort of radical measure in GB do we.

TP

i think most is built in too ..... of course, ftse is not just "london focussed" with oil, miners and banks i think making up the preponderance of companies ..... thus oilies and miners will benefit or be unaffected (overseas earners), always subject to Dow movements, whereas banks have probably built in most of the medicine coming their way

It all depends on how "black" the real economic picture is,with unemployment rising benefit payments increasing and tax receipts falling the deficit will be extremely difficult to manage. We hope the electorate will remember brown as being responsible for this disaster, but people have short memories when bad news happens.

they will have 4 years to appreciate the WONDERFUL job the yellows and blues are doing ..... more seriously, the big world economies are def on a growth track again, though uk unemployment will probably take another year to start turning meaningfully .... employment is the last to be hit/benefit in each cycle .... even so, there is an inevitable trickle-down effect as industry in general starts an upturn

cynic in the short term(1 year) are you saying our economy is improving or deteriorating?

improving though you may not notice it on the high street - and no, that is not a politician's answer

dow stumbling towards 100 point loss so london will be down tomorrow say 40+ points at opening .... and as it has been fairly positive these last days, expect that loss to be extended, not least because it's friday

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if the above proves correct, then it will be interesting to see how far the likes of RKH fall away, though there is good news hoped for next week (giving a good buying opportunity?) as well as DES and of course the likes of CHAR, which may end up having a charred indian rope (sorry; a laboured pun)

cash equivalent of futures is currently trading about 5400
after showing a new high today

VAT increase is already in the market

however as cynic says FTSE is driven by a bunch of stocks which are overseas earners

so govt action is unlikely to cause anything other than a knee jerk for a day or so

we have May expiry soon and we will know more after that

what has my attention is the growing level of civil unrest that is being caused by public service cuts

you know how militant these unions and collective direct action groups are

as for the Dow, it has already broken up and through the Jul/Feb support line
and is back testing from above

if that succeeds , the odds are on a further high

cynic we all accept we are heading into choppy waters, it is likely that during the quiet summer months the FTSE will decline as there isn't much chance of good news. Better to take a break and come back on St Leger's day.

that is far from saying ftse will fall 1000 points!

cynic you must be doing quite nicely with your FTSE short!

yes it is ..... i've been out bending the plastic all day ..... market seems to have dumped plenty since i checked in at about 1 o'clock or whenever ..... that short was my only bit of blue for the day .... perhaps i'm not so cheesed at having pulled in my horns a little yesterday on RKH"!

cynic only another 830pts to go to prove the pundits right,and the adage sell in may....

with Dow hovering either side of -200 for the day, i closed my ftse short to bank a nice little profit for the day ..... Dow may fall further tonight, but i don't feel like monitoring it, and actually, i would expect to see a recovery later on .... just a little bonus profit as were my long positions earlier in the week - never to be knocked in tricky times!

long UKX @ 5256 last night

braver than me, but i wouldn't want to be still short either - see above