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

Thanks Amar. Regarding the stops, no not usually, I like contrarian trading. Markets at the moment have been so volatile that a big swing one way has tended to have been countered the other over a very short time scale. It's without doubt a risky strategy, but I have found that by starting with a relatively small position and increasing or decreasing as the trade pans out seems to work well. My biggest failure, as I have said many times on here, is that I'm always too soon to bank a profit! Having said that, the reason I've been in the game as long as I have (only a decade) is that I'm equally quick to bank a loser. In other words, I never get a trade wrong, they just sometimes go against me!! :-)

cynic LOl

you are really good at misinterpreting
that's 2 out of 2

must be a gift

Closed my AV from last Monday +35 +10% after costs.

missed the boat here, but no really that fussed as prob have enough at risk already

Everything seemed to be going along nicely until Reuters came out with another rumour of bad news:
"RTRS-SOCIETE GENERALE SHARES DOWN ON CONCERNS OVER DERIVATIVES POSITION-TRADERS
SOCIETE GENERALE NOT IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT"
DOW futures seemed to reverse downwards, even though non-farm payroll figures at 13.30 hrs BST today appear to be above expectations.

Ftse has gone from a nice upside to downside.

See Harry's post above.

Hopefully it is not too serious as they own Selftrade!!

Have to say with the way the market is, I've been expecting something horrible pretty soon.

Jobless figures not so good, even though Obama seemed to imply the contrary:
"June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. hired fewer workers in May than forecast and Americans dropped out of the labor force, showing a lack of confidence in the recovery that may lead to slower economic growth.

Payrolls rose by 431,000 last month, including a 411,000 jump in government hiring of temporary workers for the 2010 census, Labor Department figures in Washington showed today. Economists projected a 536,000 gain, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Private payrolls rose a less-than-forecast 41,000. The jobless rate fell to 9.7 percent."

Hungary ?

Hungarys currency fell to a one-year low against the euro on Friday after a senior official warned for the second time in two days about the weakness of its economy and public finances.

The forint fell about 2 per cent after Peter Szijjarto, a spokesman for prime minister Viktor Orban, was quoted by news agencies as saying Hungarys economy was in a grave situation and that a default was a possibility.

A quick call to the French president will do the trick.....

Bloody starving :-)

Didn't Hungary withdraw from the Eurovision song contest as they would have been unable to afford hosting it the following year if they had won?

Let's all move to Brazil!

Great plan Maggie! (Just in time for the F1 please). Who's paying?

bad for randy old goats ..... brings on premature strokes, even if not ejaculation

be thankful it's w/e tomorrow! ..... typical over-reaction, but with markets this nervous, it's to be expected ..... 9850 needs to hold, which is about 100 points lower still .... possible or even probable tumble for even the likes of RKH on monday as forced sales hit

long Dow @ 9,909 over the w/end

was stopped out -11, but back in @ 9895 and out by limit @ 9961.
Just bought again @ 9844 and out almost immediately @ 9861 now long again @ 9838

I think you were briefly in the money first thing, splat, but very tricky to call the DOW atm. Seems a lot of screen gazing for minimal return. Loads of data out from the U.S. on friday so would expect some bad news then.