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

pericles - the yield is tempting with UK Banks like Barclay's and RBS, but I have a feeling they haven't been as honest with writedowns as the US and European Banks have, best to wait for next month's finals.

I gather Buffett won't be interested in tucking into banks until at least the third quarter,presumably because it's impossible to assess their fundamentals

spitfire,yes I agree, and even though the results season may not (yet!) reveal any results which are worse than those admitted to at the moment, I will have difficulty in beleiving that there is no more bad news to come. Sadly I now put the banks in the same category as political parties esp gordons lot, and I tend to think that whatever I see or hear from either lot is not likely to be the whole truth!

Might see the red turn to blue this afternoon as the DOW is tipped to recover a little, with bright outlook from DuPont but to counter that, not such good news for holders of Apple. Futures currently +30.

I am short on banks up to next months interims, especially A&L as I can't see anyone wanting to buy the bank as it will only get cheaper in the run up to next months interims. Target 550p for me. Long on yen against dollar as well, currently short on gold as due a short term correction. Should've shorted ftse but will wait now until boe decision.

Good interview on bloomberg last night, platinum is the place to be, safe haven, best metal for diesel catlysts, which are in increasing demand due to oil price not to mention fuel cells etc, but will wait for a pull back, expected to give better returns than gold apparently.

I'll put down the stock tips in relation to this when I find the scrap I wrote them on!

Would think banks will continue to head south until we have more writedowns. Will wait for the price to book values to fall further and use as a guide. In the 1990 banking crises US banks were down to at least 60% of P/BV which proved to be the bottom.

as i write, Dow once more looking sickly (-60) but GOOG down a whopping $40+, admittedly on a serious heavyweight at $625 ..... glad not in that any more!

Enjoyed Jim Rogers Hot commodities book published 2007. If you can't be bothered reading it he says that commodities hit rock bottom in 1998 with respect to inflation and have been rallying since then, albeit in fits and starts, the pullbacks can be quite extreme. Essentially the ones to go for are ones with supply/demand issues and over this century there has historically been a commodities run after equities go bearish. The FTSE is more like a commodities index itself of course especially since August. If there is high demand ie from China and India then it takes a long time to establish crops such as coffee or to build a mine so even if there is strong demand supply remains constrained for some time. I'm looking for a pull back to get into US Sugar as it is a popular biofuel in Brazil and the EU has cut the subsidy on Sugarbeet. I read recently that Goldman Sachs are bullish soft commodities which are very sensitive to weather and harvests, but less so metals which have enjoyed a great run in 2007.

Here are some of the platinum tips

phpt:uk is an etf
anglo platinum agppy:us 75% owned by anglo-american another was impala platinum impuy:us, impala is higher risk as it is mainly in zimbabwe.
You can't see charts with moneyam but they are available on bloomberg.com.

Question is will it pull back to gain a better entry point. Please DYOR. As a fund manager tipped them on live TV yesterday he will probably sell tommorrow and buy back in a week !!!!

indicators, which i agree often prove wrong, are that last night's rally was no more than a DCB ..... Dow indicating to open -89

Only -13 now, but crucial FED speech this afternoon & also BoE rate decision to come. Sideways trading 'til then, imo.

No change to BoE rate. Held at 5.5%
Now it's up to the U.S. this afternoon.

below is a snippet from www.cnnfn.com and explains why Dow has suddenly come to life this afternoon, despite a bunch of pretty negative reports ....

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged Thursday to slash interest rates yet again to prevent housing and credit problems from plunging the country into a recession.

The Fed chief made clear the central bank was prepared to act aggressively to rescue a weakening economy.

was initially up about 100, but now back to almost neutral, but that is still a lot better than it might have been and looked at the opening bell ..... last hour of trading could be its usual exciting stuff!

Wall Street is currently plummeting (down 195 and has been lower), but for sure the Fed is going to cut rates quite aggressively and i dare say if there are other stimuli that can be applied, it will ..... it therefore seems to me that a long flutter on one the US indices may shortly be quite tempting

I seem to have lost my calender of events. When is the next FED rate review, please?

from memory, 29th Jan.

given the state of the markets, and indeed world economies, one does wonder whether one would be better off in cash, or if in the market, then short of advertising companies (WPP?) and other shares in the luxury and non-essential sectors ..... the only sectors that are now looking healthy are the miners (gold especially) and oilies and the like.

btw, that does not contradict my previous post ..... even in a bear market, the indices do not go south in a straight line.

The fed have already indicated that they will cut rates to support the economy, even with everything looking very negative and for very good reasons. It still wouldn't surprise me to see the US economy to still lead the way out of this mess. As you say cash is king at the moment.

Maybe the old theory of Utilities & Supermarkets being safe havens will kick in again? Both pay a reasonable divi, though capital growth is dull.

in that case, much as i avoid the place, i guess tesco would be your best bet ..... given the choice, i would almost never shop in any supermarket ..... the quality is generally poor and over-priced relative to a quality independent specialist ..... apart from which, supporting a supermarket for meat, fish, veg and similar, is (almost) tantamount to death by 1000 cuts for the few quality independents that remain .... don't get me started!