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

No great surprise rf, imo. This decline has been widely predicted. I wonder if Simon Griffin target of 5050 is going to happen. Certainly 5600 is on the cards, imo. Will make for a great boost in the autumn though, once the markets start to pick up again.

Month on Month retail sales were dire - previous month 1.1% consensus -0.6% actual -1.4%.

pity; Dow just drifting and drifting ...... having been +80 at one point, it is now hovering at barely b/e

Can't see the charts .....hmm, let me put my glasses on, no still can't see them :-)

Try on page 1. Cynic decided to leave them out of the header!!!

Thanks Harrycat

i smell a low or at the very least a decent bounce soon
currently flat on indices and watching for opportunitity. had already tightened my stop losses on my individual stocks but not been hit just YET. although my portfolio is finally now well down from recent highs. still well up through longer term and just trying to hang on in there.
on reflection it may have been prudent of me to have taken a dow/ftse short to protect my portfolio short term. trouble is from past experience i usually get em both wrong. so just sitting tight at moment and allowing my stop losses to do their stuff although i did manage to add a bit from my last long venture into the dow.luckily i escaped with a profit from what turned out to be a short term rally.it could have been an absolute disaster but fortunately, due to stop losses it wasnt.
lots of stocks looking toppy, but not yet broken down and confirmed. maybe they will.
or not? i dont know. thats why i have my stops in place.
all just my opinion as always.
oh! and btw for those that may be interested it's the longest day next week.
regards to all
jkd
edit for interest dow and ftse currently circa 12001/5703

Looks like FTSE will open down 30/40 points

let's hope dow can hang on to its modest gain over the whole session .... not greatly meaningful other than psychologically

cynic sooner or later even the Yanks will wake up to the fact that the greek situation is like a pimple on a pumpkin in world economic terms,an economy based on olives and showing idiot tourists their rapidly decaying architecture.Soon perhaps will be the time to be averaging those semi-submerged holdings, pretty sure Warren is doing exactly that.

and i thought i was meant to be the cynic!

Halifax - "like a pimple on a pumpkin" - interesting analogy!

cynic don't panic Capt M....... springs to mind,just politicians trying to justify their existence when this storm in a pisspot is resolved.

I think it is the implication of the domino effect, rather than Greece as an isolated problem. (i.e. who else will default or need mega assistance and what therefore becomes of the ? The pimple then becomes a cancer).

Harry time to take off that sandwich board....." the end of the world is...."

the end of the world is ..... a surfeit of domino's pizzas

Hi guys
I need a little bit of advice, having been following various threads on here for a few years as a long term investor. I have taken the plunge and started spread betting indices(ftse,dow) 1 a point using ma,volatility,volume and trend lines and playing with some other indicators. Some questions arise mainly entry and exit, small moves maybe 10points with a view to building up to 10 per point. Any advice would be much appreciated and obviously I know the risks ie. DYOR

Hi Pat - I trade the FTSE regularly using spread betting. I used to trade the DOW, but that's often like grabbing a viper by the tail - it is bound to bite you! For the FTSE, I often put in limit orders 40 or so points away from closing prices (both long and short) and often get filled to my advantage - sometimes not! To start with, I would keep the stake small and look to trade for 20+ points with the trend. You mention trading for 10 point moves - I think you will find this hard to do - especially with stops in place.

markets are currently very jittery (scary if you like) with the greek tragedy overhanging all ...... general consensus is that pandreou will win tonight's vote and they'd better be right ..... even then, there will be several more weeks volatility until the bail out dosh and terms are agreed

Hi Skinny-thanks for reply....sorry for being a thicko but how does that work? and who do you use?