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

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 :-)

Cap spreads Skinny.

Stopped out of a Ftse long (Limit) @5870.0 +40. Now short from 5872.0 which may well be a bad call :O)

surprised you didn't just run a trailing stop rather than a limit .... certainly think a short could be a dodgy call

Busy day cynic in and out so to speak.

Stopped out of a chunky BARC long +8

And out 5875.8 -3.80. Back later.

Still long, by the sounds of it.

Blimey - LLOY touched 10 bob at open.