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

hmmm...stupid perhaps rather than brave, HC! Patience is the watchword (oh and some balls!) :-)

And margin ! :-)

momentum below 12000 and 5645 are said to be the respective levels to fear

meanwhile, insofar as that is not an oxymoron with an sp at +/-$600, i have opened a modest short on GOOG ......

however, i shall not be greedy, as though politicians are notoriously stupid, they cannot all be totally nuts, so it is certain that a US budget deal will be struck, and some sort of nonsense cobbled together for the PIGS!

Obama has stated they face ''Armageddon'' if the Budget is not sorted. Plan c will sort it. Otherwise no doubt China will move in. Hope you had a good break cynic.

it's a lovely area and also the villa; many thanks and wish i was still there

I bet you do, returning to this sh--. dc

Dow covered +110 and UKX +30 :)

CNNMoney: (A mixed bag)
"Companies: Quarterly reports from the banking sector will take center stage Tuesday morning.

Before the opening bell, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) reported a net loss of $8.8 billion, or 90 cents per diluted share, in line with analyst expectations.

The bank was not expected to report a profit after agreeing to pay an $8.5 billion settlement to investors burned by fraudulent mortgage securities.

Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) posted second-quarter earnings of $1.1 billion profit, or $1.85 a share, missing analysts' forecasts. The investment firm reported net revenue of $7.28 billion.

Citing strong demand, Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) reported earnings per share of $1.20 on revenue of $12.7 billion, beating analyst expectations. Shares of the soft-drink maker were up more than 1% in premarket trading.

Investors will also hear from Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) before the market open.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is scheduled to report its earnings after the closing bell. The iPod, iPad and Mac computer maker is forecast to have earned $5.85 a share. Also out after the close on Tuesday are results from Yahoo! (YHOO, Fortune 500)."

The banks all coming off now.

i am 100% long which worries me a little. looking for somethings to short.
only 35% invested presently but geared at x5 via spread betting. just hanging on to what i have with stop losses in place.
money management keeps me in profit.
fortunately i do have a reasonable spread of risk over several market sectors. no guarantee of course but at least my portfolio is in healthy shape.
i am still looking to add on the buy side, could be wrong and if i am i shall bank some healthy profits(baring a disaster, and i am well aware it could happen) along with some small losses, all via my stops.
by then of course i may feel it too late to go short. IF all my stops get hit then this market is going down big time.i dont think it is going to happen, but then i would say that wouldnt i? after all i am 100% long. pleae dyor.
regards and good luck
jkd

DOW 126 points up, could be a good day Wednesday

AAP figures blow estimates out of the window

AAP?

AAPL - Apple.

yes - sorry a typo in my excitement - took long ftse following same

Not sure if this is a bit of a sucker's rally. U.S. are preparing to increase their debt ceiling and the Eurozone are still trying to figure out a way of ensuring members don't default (with possible fallout for U.K. banks). August is traditonally a bad month for equities, so wouldn't be surprised to see profit taking when the froth settles.

markets now recovered pretty well, implying a consensus that a reasonably acceptable fudge will be cobbled together in eurozone

Isn't hindsight easy!

Did the FTSE go low enough to trigger my buy order @ 5800?

I have the low as 5797.48 - but that's between you and your SB company :-)