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, but it will make a mess! :0)

at the moment all shit anyway!

Not if you are a sugar daddy about the only flier today!

Dow struggling to blue (+41) though techs still being whacked (GOOG -$13.00 after -$24.00)

I'm not surprised goog is falling. At its recent peak if it had been in the FTSE its earnings would have been equivalent to ITV's and it would have had the 3rd. largest market cap in the index. I know everyone uses it but people only tend to browse the first 2 pages and most of them have been paid for.

disppointing that Dow finished slightly down (about 35 points) especially as it had been +70 about 30 mins before close ..... however, this was far from dire especially considering early indications of another fall of >100 ..... techs finished very weak with GOOG (my arbitrary bellweather) being down another $22.00.

My guess is that London will open marginally higher and for myself, i hope that the miners stage a bit of or even a significant recovery after the last 2 days of total massacre

Due today:
"Merrill Lynch and a number of other financial services firms due to report quarterly results before the start of trade in the U.S.
The December housing starts and building permits reports are also due before the start of trade."
Don't get your hopes up too much!

"Merrill Lynch reported a quarterly operating loss of over $10 billion Thursday that was much worse than expected, and the company also announced an $11.5 billion writedown related to the subprime crisis."

DOW currently tipped to open down 33 points.

Shocking figures, after some initial weakness on the ML numbers, the uk banks have picked up the baton again, they aren't running though just a casual stroll atm. This morning the DOW was expected to open up around 80 points, so it's weakened from then. Good luck all.
2517

Very messy indeed!

damn chart update was 2/3 days late ...... since 20 mins ago modestly short both Dow and FTSE and almost sorry to say both already in the money

Dow stopped out at limit, so a little profit in the bank; FTSE left open and, i am almost frightened to say, also pretty well in the money ..... London could be very scary tomorrow

It would be a disaster.

closed london short .... Fed heavies clearly about to wade in very heavily to try to stop bloodshed ..... good news at least in the short term

Well, what a market we have here !, stockpicking and timing will be essential this coming 2008, very difficult.

a more detailed extract of what Mr B said last night for you all to contemplate .....

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday that legislators should enact a fiscal stimulus package in order to help beleaguered consumers as recession fears grow.

"To be useful, a fiscal stimulus package should be implemented quickly and structured so that its effects on aggregate spending are felt as much as possible within the next twelve months or so," Bernanke said.

Bernanke said that current losses from the subprime mortgage mess were probably about $100 billion but cautioned that this figure could wind up being higher.

During Thursday's hearing, Bernanke said he thought a fiscal stimulus package of up to $150 billion, would be "reasonable."

Bernanke cautioned though that any stimulus "should be explicitly temporary" in order "to avoid unwanted stimulus beyond the near-term horizon and, importantly, to preclude an increase in the federal government's structural budget deficit."

The Fed chairman said that extending some of the tax cuts engineered by Bush in 2001 and 2003, which are set to expire in 2010, could have a positive impact on the stock market today. He singled out the cut on dividend taxes as particularly key to stimulating the economy.

Bernanke stopped short of suggesting that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent. He said he's most in favor of the "law of arithmetic" - regardless of what Congress spends on fiscal stimulus, it should make sure that it had the resources to support the package.

I think I am correct in saying that the DOW is tipped to open up 129 points, so hopefully may see the FTSE continue it's recovery today!

Amazing how sentiment changes so quickly, I went out at 09:30 with ftse heading down 40 point's and full of pessimism, looking like it would head much lower. Then up 80 point's when I returned and opposite sentiment.

This market is so volatile at the moment, with extreme mood swings, they need a good dose of prozac.

I understand the FTSE is on a PE of 11.
2517

i RECON THE ftse WILL BE NEGATIVE BY THE CLOSE ??