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

Yep, non-farm payrolls. Make or break for friday p.m.

am i not right in thinking that +65k is pretty grim, though obviously better than a fall?

The consensus is for 75k v 117k last time.

and lots of excuses if below that like interruption by verizon workers + hurricane

Bank holiday w/e in the U.S. so another excuse for trades to slim down & the DOW to slide.

as at now, i see no reason to expect other than a drop in USA, and have banked a few profits as a precaution .... if by some chance the employment numbers come in ok, then i shall be more than happy to have "sold too early"

The market will do the opposite to what people think.

So I suggest it may well go up.

Gold steeply up this morning!

DD - it certainly will if the US employment num,bers are seen as at least adequate ..... there is also the argument that if they are poor, then QE3 will come into play, though i would rather that wasn't necessary

Interesting article re QE3 -

Should investors be careful of wishing for QE3?

I'll be not suprised if jobs not that bad anb all bounce back..or now bad news is good as a reason for qe3

I have a figure of zero.

Gold off the highs.

Back up on fear.

i guess this makes QE3 pretty much inevitable, so where next?

QE Band aid repair, fear rules and short is the way to go for me.

cynic - have a read of the article in post 6639.

Grim day for all, except shorters. Lets hope things improve when the U.S. opens on tuesday. Should have taken profit on my mining shares last week. Damn!

i would if i could but it seems to be a subscription site ...... what was the conclusion? ..... i cannot see QE3 being good for anything but a quick fillip followed by death

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got in there eventually ..... no firm view other than likely to happen

Looks like the DOW will be opening down 200 points Tuesday