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

EK has been shorting CNT big time.....I should have taken more notice.....the sp has gone from 400p down to 15p.....damn...another missed opportunity....

i was almost more stupid ..... i held them at a much higher level and sold at a small profit because i thought they might tumble .... but i did nothing about it until a few days ago - doh! ..... considering the small investment, i have banked some very nice profits already and still hold a 50% norm (short) at an cp average of 29.7 ..... depending on how things look, i may (try to) short some on monday, while remaining aware that the upside (downside!) is only about 15p whereas the upside (downside!) is theoretically limitless

DOW was down 150 points at midday (U.S. time). I think it would have been possible to close a short at a profit!

if you did so, yes, but if you hung on, then you would have lost 120 points from the high (low!)

only a couple of hours ago Dow looked set for a big sell off, but it has performed like lazarus yet again ..... still just over an hour's trading left, so any number of possibilities on the cards

see bp thread for sharp recover there too

Something to do with the FED interest rate staying the same, maybe, and soothing words from Ben B? (I usually put BB, but then Balerboy gets ideas beyond his station!)

finished -54 but could have been far worse after -140 at one point

now then "arry"

DOW futures currently -129. Gonna be a grim start to the afternoon.

Roll on 1:30.

US trade deficit widens

DOW & FTSE graphs on page 1 well below any support from the DMA's. Looks like 10,000 & 5000 levels are going to be tested again before St Ledger day.

9830 and 5088 respectively are the potential low support levels

cynic - can you put the charts in the opening post please.

the ones i quote from are not copyable ...... they are actually produced by a pal of mine who works some very complex and arcane system called GANN theory - all gibberish to me! - but it's reasonable accurate insofar as charts ever can be

a chirpier start indicated in NY ...... employment numbers must be modestly encouraging

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Number of people filing for initial jobless benefits fell to 473,000 last week; down 31,000 from previous week.

I'm not confident that the downtrend has been broken though, so am sitting on some cash & will wait a week or two I think. August has not been the greatest month for trading. Hopefully, when The City boys get back to their desks, things will pick up.

i merely post!

Well the +54 DOW futures I saw earlier has already fizzled in to a minus figure!

DOW -140. Nudging the 10000 level. Not expecting great things on the FTSE on tues, which is a shame as the DOW was nicely up on friday.