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

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.

These wild swings are not for the feint hearted! They are reminiscent of 2008. Any fundamentals are being ignored and it all seems to be moving on emotion i.e. fear and greed!!

FSA say they are not going to ban short selling of UK stocks, guess where we are going next!

don't know which day(s) are more ridiculous

interesting to note that dow could not hold above key 11160, having been as high as 11250 shortly before the close

Richard, I'm not sure that level holds relevance any longer, on the Weekly chart the index has closed below 11160 three times and is currently below (obviously) on the Monthly chart.

Just seen on the BBC that the French, Germans and italians are going to try to stop shorting. It came over as all shorting, not just on banks.If that is true it will be interesting.

you prob right peter, especially in such volatile markets .... i guess you're more interested in the 11,000 level anyway