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

5000 looking soggy again!

yup. Long FTSE again @ 4999 and Dow @ 10775

with pretty tight stops and not too much exposure i hope

out Dow +50 and some UKX +30

keeping eyes wide open, thanks Cyners

.

out more UKX +40

Dvu

Bzck in UKX @ 4957 and Dow @ 10642
HOC @ 428

out DOW @ 10,728 +86 and some UKX +40 :-)

Off out shortly - I've left a buy in @4800 (with a stop).

Flippin' 'eck! Wasn't DOW +170 earlier on this morning??? Now -80. I think we are now blaming the french banks for current weakness, due to their writedowns of greek debt.

Number of people filing for initial jobless claims falls 7,000 to 395,000 in the latest week, first time below 400,000 in 4 months.

but will the markets respond? ...... i'm afraid i rather doubt it

I think the trade balance deficit of $53.07B against the Consensus of $48.0B - highest since October 2008 might weigh!

I Tink the yanks are off there heads, will rally :O)

Chris - you are probably right :-)

skinny - Balm pots the lot of em, made my dosh this morn, could go anywhere :O)

Just back from my daughter's. See my power over the markets - expecting a fall to 4800 and the market rockets :))

what a hairy-scary day; all over the place but final couple of hours were certainly very strong ...... not surprisingly, portfolio looks at least a bit healthier and even made a few shekels trading the indices ....... wouldn't it be nice if there isn't the customary friday sell-off

Don't panic skinny it's early yet, time for a 200 swing up, down and back again.