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

a reminder to myself as much as everyone else ..... the markets remain fragile and volatile in the extreme ..... while it is reasonably certain that BoE will drop interest rates in a couple of weeks, Mervyn King was quite right to flag that inflation is raising its head .... was also concerned to read that a lot of Amis seemingly think Fed will cut rates yet again next week ..... imo, that really would be a panic signal, but will Dow also take it amiss if this does NOT happen?

Dow immediate top is prob 12200

Interesting you should say that, cynic, 'cos I heard this morning that the reason for the decline this morning is due to the release of information that the MPC voted not to reduce interest rates in Jan by 8-1 & that the maximun they are likely to reduce rates in feb is by only a quarter of 1%. They appear to be more concerned over keeping inflation in check than appeasing the credit market. I wouldn't be surprised to see the FED regret their cut yesterday, or at least the size of the cut.

motorola!

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Motorola Inc. on Wednesday reported an 84% decline in fourth-quarter profit, as it shipped fewer wireless phones and suffered a steep loss in its struggling handset division.

"mind the gap"

nasdaq yesterday

Pfizer beats earnings guidance. Not all bad news.

won't be remotely enough to give Dow a hard-on!

also good news from GM

Its the Hong kong Chinese that could bring the pack of cards down if the dow goes south. The margin calls cleaned the buyers out yesterday so the crazy 2300 point rise today in on credit. If that goes against them its 1997 asian crisis all over again

am very susprised to see Wall Street behaving comparatively robustly ..... was down about 200 this morning ..... will be interesting to see if 12000 can be breached and held at close ..... i fear not, but would be delighted to be proved wrong

was sat with around 30% cash this time a month ago awaiting this kind of scenario, (well at least didn't believe the market was correct at 6400ish) and was ready for a decent correction, however some poorly set limit orders has seen my cash pile used, albeit the prices seemed quite mean at the time. Have now ended up buying on t20's hoping that this is the right time to buy, and at least should see a profit within the month, here's hoping and wishing everyone good luck in these stormy waters...
regards

Big Ted ..very difficult to time anything right at the moment, though if we all get through this there could be some wonderful buying opportunities later in the year...

seems this was the reason , tho, what it really means i do not know

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Ambac Financial Group and MBIA Inc. renewed their rallies Wednesday, extending the prior session's gains on hopes that the struggling bond insurers will be salvaged via acquisitions or by regulator-orchestrated investments.
Big banks and brokers that are counterparties to bond insurers met with Eric Dinallo, the top New York state insurance regulator, on Wednesday to discuss how to stabilize and inject more capital into the $2.3 trillion market, David Neustadt, a spokesman for the New York Insurance Department, said in a statement. He declined to say what options were specifically discussed.

Seems to me as a well known squark box presenter said today "We are groping for the bottom".Interpret that as you may!!

before we all get carried away on a cloud of euphoria after last night's stunning performance in NY, stay very aware that there are still huge perils ahead ......

from an index trading view, i would not be surprised to see Dow fall back through 12200 and in any case, the downtrend remains in place until 12800 is firmly breached .... currently 12300 so still a long way off isn't it!

FTSE key number on the upside is 5910 (currently 5768), while the downside could be as low as 5065

I agree, we must be careful, a massive fraud unveiled at SOC GEN.
2517

I also agree with an earlier post by stroreysj in as much as this is a fabulous time for making money in a short space of time, but you have to be careful.
2517

had a lot of fun last night trading in and out of Dow both long and short (modest stakes only) ..... made one stinker call, but more than made up for it ..... however, it meant being glued to the screen and taking profits when it looked right, and hoping you had the rhythm right when re-entering

The soc gen 3.9 billion fraud was caused by one trader, a massive number when you think of the Nick Leeson figure that brought Barings down in 1995 of 850m. Couldn't have happened at a worse time.

Not quite the same situation, but SG... another Northern Rock ?

i suspect not ..... the disaster will be swept under the carpet somehow, though of course SG results will be worse than appalling