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

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!

I agree our local butcher has just closed as the owner will make 000's by selling the plot for residential development, which is much more lucrative and easier than spending the next 10 years running a butchers shop.

Actually I wasn't planning on spending my hard earned pittance IN the supermarkets, just hoping that the masses will. Happy just to hold the shares, maybe.
It always amazes me that with everything there is choice, but when it comes to water & sewerage, each region is a monoploy. Anglian Water supply the H2O and charge me accordingly, take it or leave it! No competition, though regulated by Ofwat.
But, the theory is, we will all need food, Water & drainage regardless of the economic climate.

If we all need food the least risk is going long on soft commodities, rather than supermarkets themselves as they are prone to reduced margins as food stuffs increase in value.

Rogers expects cotton, maize, wheat to increase for the next 3-5 years, more inflation on the way, hard times ahead for UK supermarkets, tesco would have to be the best due to far-east growth story.

Personally I am going long on wheat and cotton via spread bet, and we haven't even had a drought for a while so the price will rocket if that occurs.

no drought? ..... ask them in Australia!

Ok forgot about that one, I meant in america or russia.

in that case do you mean maize or wheat?
how about rice futures? ..... now that is an interesting one for you if you are into softs

DOW tipped to open up 112 points. Might be a good afternoon on the FTSE also.

Dow come off quite a bit, but still comfoiratbly up - but then it needs to be
quite tempted to dabble in GOOG

where can you find rice futures?

no idea mate .... they may not even exist in the obvious markets, but certainly rice prices are through the roof due to enormous flooding in china (i think) and bangla

meanwhile, i watch Dow with interest .... it has been hovering around +100 since open and it is at least psychologically important to see what happens by the close

I read recently that the prized basmati rice can only be grown properly in cartain mountainous regions of India and they struggle to meet demand. Other rice can be artificially grown by damming a field and irrigating it to grow rice as opposed to using paddy fields. However when I looked into this a few years ago it does damage the soil with salt deposits thus not being sustainbale in the long term at least not without break crops.

good to see Dow finish so well, but none should get too elated .... all still very fragile and brittle