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

what a nasty day and not looking to improve at the moment ..... indeed, (much) worse is the more likely

I reckon that on a blue day : the gold producers will start to soar......

Looks like my post 6011 was quite accurate !

Indeed skinners. Could be an interesting afternoon.

An idea came to me this afternoon....as we in the UK are fortunate enough to have detached ourselves from the euro debacle : we could be in a position to attach ourselves to rising commodities : if the mint produced for example pound coins or come to that why not notes with the metal band with a small amount of gold or silver or another precious metal : the country could be in a position at only the exact cost at the time of producing the coins or notes in rewarding the bearers with a possible increase in value ,...there could be no downside as a pound is a pound ....this could make the demand for the pound soar, hence creating huge demand.....especially if a system was set in place that the currency could be exchanged easily for or from the price of the metal back into more than the value of the original mint.......perhaps also that the future of any currency should include a microchip in the coin or note that can be registered with the holder and activated or deactivated if he or she wishes to do so......this could be a new way of trading and rewarding citizens of this country....

'Cos people would just extract the precious metal from the money or hoard the money to wait for it to appreciate in value, regardless of it's face value.
Cheque guarantee cards are now going, cheques also being phased out. Eventually coins and notes will go the same way and all transactions will be via swipe card or mobile phone credit system.

We are a long way off disposing of coins, if ever...

This blinkin' market creeps up a little and then falls off a cliff.....each time....

Yep, looks like the norm after non farms is released. Give it a week.

A lot of companies going ex-divi tomorrow, a few big ones amongst them (FGP, CHG etc) so that may drag on the index, plus DOW futures currently -110. Apart from NWG, everything on my screen in the red! (Even a few companies which have produced quite a good RNS this morning being dragged down).

Harry - I have MKLW +2.8% (42 shares traded) and COST +0.8% (1376 shares traded) :-)))

I'm waiting on a couple of gold producers....might make a profit for a change ....since march it's been terrible...

Nice one Skinny. I have a bit of spare cash so looking around for bargains.

Gees, I'm exhausted trying to scalp these indeces. just crazy and getting crazier.

Smugly profitable exhausted or suicidal exhausted?

At the moment out at break evenfor the day. Was going dizzy up 20 down 20, no clear direction but still watching has to break one way or the other.

Dollar Index at lows of the day Dow goes up, but just a flicker above the low Dow goes down.

That was one serious volatile day on the Dow all rumour and news driven. Managed to scalp 48 points at the end. Crazy Yanks!

Unemployment rate unchanged 7.7%

relative rubbish finish in usa albeit it was +46 ...... prob another unsettled day in london ahead ..... glad i made a good trade on GOOG .... not big profit, but welcome nevertheless