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

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....

Should i close my short @78?

Again, I have to say, good call skinny - if you want an answer, I'd say, first: to which index do you refer? and second: if it's the Dow, and you mean 9878, depends where you went short from. You'll never catch me sat on the fence! :-)

9838 a few minutes ago

now back to 9900

stops 'r us ?

:-)

well that looks to have burnt your fingers badly camelot, if you were bold enough to be short ..... if you look now, you'll see dow cash recovered heftily to 10080 - i expect futures are similar

hoodless brennan i have always regarded as a somewhat unfortunate name .... it brings to mind a mistakenly circumcised catholic! ..... they should perhaps change to hoodless bernstein

I had to grab the Dow last night at the spooky figure of 911!! Also long UKX @ 4985

another spiffing day, but i need to constantly remind myself that the market can dive even faster and sharper

Does it matter cynic? Dont you swing both ways?