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

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

so, citi report tommorrow, will it be nightmare or relief its only a few billion? Hard to say how the market will react, going to be a nervous start I would think.

Personally I see more trouble ahead, can't tell if its alreadly in the price though, should oil continue up could be a fall back on the Dow Any thoughts?

wish i was a soothsayer .... reader of entrails would perhaps be a better description

check out talk to yourself thread, it may give inspiration, or perspiration

Citicorp news out .... not yet read but clearly not as bad as many feared ..... Dow indications recovering from earlier -75 to current -40 ...... wait 30 mins to sere how it settles down

Oh dear ...

The company recorded a net loss of $9.83 billion, or $1.99 a share, in the fourth quarter. In the same period last year, the company reported a profit of $5.13 billion, or $1.03 per share.

Citi's top line took a big hit. The company reported revenue of $7.2 billion for the quarter, down 70 percent from $23.8 billion a year earlier.

The results were far worse than forecast. Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of $1 a share on revenue of $10.64 billion, according to analysts surveyed by earnings tracker Thomson Financial.

Citi's figures are hard to comprehend, unless I have misread them, a 4th quarter Subprime writedown of $18 billion, consumer credit costs of $4 billion which gives a loss for the quarter of $9.8 billion.

Thank god I had gone to a cash position, I will await February and the UK banks figures with interest, I just hope they have allowed enough in writedowns already.

i shall try to sit tight with what i have ..... glad i sold IEC this morning ..... a bid for RIO and/or XTA would come in handy!

spitfire43 ----- I would not be surprised if the mainstream UK banks surprised on the upside, imo BARC 470p ( my preferred choice), LLOY 410p, RBS 397p(although with reservations) and HBOS 649p all look as if they are pricing in a worst case scenario.
2517

Good luck with a bid Cynic.

Have you been shorting any companies recently. I'm still keeping an eye on SOLA, but they have been rising against logic, made a note this morning to short FCCN, but events overtook me.

2517GEORGE - I hope you are right, I'm keeping a close eye on RBS, looking for a good entrance price. But as I can see the UK Banks haven't written off that much, compared to US and European banks.

no ..... no cojones! ...... hard to believe that SOLA is holding up, but then so is PVCS

trouble with shorting is that one tends to do it when sp has already tumbled, and bear squeezes can be fearsome ..... WPP looks a good candidate though

I can understand PVCS holding up, they already have a profit making business, I wouldn't mind a holding in them in the future. But SOLA seem to be built on a mountain of debt.

all very contrary, but sp just not seem to want to drop .... have a look at the chart