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

fingers crossed that this morning's US employment data at least meets forecast

looks as though those numbers were ok even if not spifflicating ..... will c+p when showing on cnn

The jobs recovery slowed for a third month in a row, according to two reports out Wednesday.
Private sector employers added 114,000 workers in July, far lower than the 145,000 jobs added in June, according to a report by payroll processing firm ADP.
While that number beat economists' forecasts for 100,000 additional jobs, it is also taken with a grain of salt by some economists, since ADP's figures have differed wildly from government data this year.
Meanwhile, a separate report showed more firms are opting to downsize, rather than add to their payrolls.
The number of planned job cuts surged to a 16-month high in July -- rising 60% in July to 66,414 from June's 41,432, according to outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

DOW futures still in +tve territory thankfully. Non-farm employment change figures on friday, so still not out of the woods yet.

800 jobs to go at sellafield and closing, since japan quake.

Bye bye 5600

so much for having been nearly back at b/e for the day ...... this is all looking very bleak with all US indices having broken key levels, and ftse now too

Apparently if the DOW finishes down today it would be the 9th straight session of doing so which is a record for over 100 years!

With the breakdown of the AIM/small caps some 3 mnths ago, this has been on the cards for some time.

It was in 1978 apparently.

Forget that - this is from CNBC.

In the last 20 years, there have been 3 instances where the Dow closed down for 8 days or longer. And if the Dow closes lower on Wednesday, it will it be its biggest losing streak since February 1, 1984, when the index fell for 11 consecutive trading sessions, losing 4.7 percent over that period.


Link here.

well that does seem a while skinny :-)

Sorry thought it was over 100 yrs!

I must have been thinking of my age ...

Boney M time eh

I saw the DOW as low as 11,709 on CMC - might have been worth a pop (or not).

1978 - Happy days - I was back packing round Europe - quite trendy then :-)

Um just got a job at BSM I remember!

just about to start my new school :-)

reform? :-)

that's the one :-)

markets are voting with their feet on the performance (or lack thereof) of politicians globally. how can you survive as a capitalist in the US with a lame duck president obama.

i think that is unfair ..... Obama was damned if he did and damned if he didn't ..... what i find so disgusting is the lack of honest bipartisan debate in a time a undoubted national crisis .... instead of that, we got the customary vicious party politicking (from both sides) with no care for the the country at all