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

Are you allowed to AOTFS on here ! :-)

whether you can or not, he has ..

what a truly vile week this has turned into
"guru's" bulletin a couple of days back was quite bullish but suggested stop-loss on any fall with impetus below 5760

AOTFS was almost an understatement ..... Dow has been down about 120 but is now down just 26 ..... but where will it close?

cynic lets face it this has been a very good week Osama bin liner is no longer with us.

yes, but the market was arguably looking for an excuse to retrench/consolidate, so the perceived added danger was as good an excuse as any ..... there's also been some pretty shitty economic numbers from US

or perhaps looking at it cynically the US won't have to spend so much looking for OSB who was always right under their noses...... you wouldn't believe it if you read it in a book.

you forget that wars are a great stimulus to industry and the economy

cynic we dont forget that wars are a great destroyer of wealth and people, the point is its election year in the states next year and Obama needs to raise his rating before the Republicans chose a candidate to run against him. The demise of OSB is an opportunity for a President who had lost most of his credibility.

my comment was marginally tongue in cheek, but i think maggie the magus was very thankful for the falklands war

cynic there is no comparison between the invasion of the Falkland Islands and a terrorist act in New York.

strewth! Dow suddenly down nearly 200

thank goodness i ducked sharply today, but still may be insufficient

This needs to bottom out, the fact remains that economies are recovering albeit very slowly and it's mighty difficult to predict movements, because even though all is red today it can become blue with huge buying in a moment, such is the market so fickle at this present time.

QE11 finishes in June. I suspect it is going to be a grim summer for equities, as stocks fell markedly when QE1 finished.
Ross Mould take on this subject worth a read in Shares Mag.

i can tell you that in the big wide world, demand for chemical shipments and oilfield development kit is now very strong, so work it out for yourselves

I have shares in YULC, but even with their global reach, don't seem to be going anywhere atm.

a chirpy look to wall street should augur well for london tomorrow ..... if so, let's hope it remembers to mark up sharply the shares in my portfolio!

she aint sung yet cynic, but i do wish that your hope will be fulfilled.
regards
jkd

Mega grim day for anyone long. I wonder if it may now be better to take profit as and when available and to sit on cash until QE11 is out of the way, interest rates start to kick up and the usual pick up in trades in september approaches? Or just sit in stocks which pay good divis?

it was a bit bleak earlier, but is now turning into quite a reasonable day after all