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

or the very foolish!

Well I've been long for the last half hour or so.

Hils - I'm still short from yesterday morning, but looking to close @60 - picked up some AV. @293 earlier.

I'll dump it if it dips below 4920, Skinners. That's futs btw.

Going long again, Skinners.

hilary - do you also play with dow? ..... if so, the there is a support (allegedly!) at 9850

cynic - its about there now.

Ok Hils - out @39 (for now) +159

exactly so skinny and am modestly tempted for a small (skinny!)dip

:-) I've gone long @43 - stop @20

Dumped mine again a few minutes ago, skinners.

Cynic,

No, I don't trade the Dow. I've actually reduced my number of screens, and I don't really want to start adding to them again.

good/terrific turnaround on dow, and with 30 minutes to go, and it could even end in positive territory which would augur very well for london tomorrow .... nevertheless, to say the markets (will) remain twitchy, is an understatement

Blimey!! Went long UKX @ 4930 and just covered some of it, having just checked in, +123. Leaving the rest for now with a high stop. Also long INDU from 10031 earlier. This is one fun market atm. Not into longer term Index positions, though happy to leave some less liquid and beaten down stocks in open positions for at least a few weeks. Could be a bright blue day all round tomorrow.... :-)

i'm staying away from the indices at the moment, purely because i have lost my touch with timing and assuredly would not want to leave open overnight .... that said, if you can get the rhythm right, there's a lot of money to be made

Dow long covered +98 by limit @ 10129 last night it seems :-)

listen,learn and remember

http://catastrophist.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/ben-lichtenstein-sp500-pit-squawk-may-6/

What a load of bullshit!

strange old day in USA, and tiresome as it is that dow closed below 10,000 i would hope that it is no more than a bit of continuing nervousness ..... certainly good to see new home sales +15% in april, and that i feel is more important an indicator of where economies are heading

cynic more of an optimist than a cynic....