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

Not surprised for a moment that profit taking kicked in today with everyone taking a beating prior to the RELIEF RALLY (CNBC Speak). But professionals close markets so lets see were we are at at close of play as looking like the FTSE is going up again, or atleast not down. Nothing wrong with the market taking a little breather before it pushes on again. As the market has fallen so much prior to the the bounce, albeit a quick one, it is still in negative territory for 2008 in hard numbers.

As the eternal optimist i just do not see a recession only depressed US housing because of bad bets by multiple home owner speculators, a screwed up banking system underpinned by greed and misappropriated governemnet US overspending on war-mongering. Despite all of this the consumer and the job market is still holding up, interest rates are coming down and if all else fails there are always the soverign wealth funds.

Anyway ill get off my soapbox as even im getting bored with my post :-).. Thanks for listening

and just how will rushing out buying more chinese tat help the US economy

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Retail shares rose Friday, bolstered by hopes that an economic-stimulus proposal will put money back into U.S. consumers' pockets and send shoppers flocking to stores.

meanwhile Dow continues to slip away from this morning's euphoric indications (goody goody!) and SOLA resumes its downward path

well shorted but only for the brave or foolhardy :-)))

Redirecting $'s from over inflated miltary contracts to the domestic economy would be a good start.

its not before time the US economy gets hit hard as credit lines eventually get maxed out. Unfortunately the rest of the world is still hung up on it being the centre of the universe and we all have to suffer with a bad hangover because one of the members of the team drank too much. Im not convinced decoupling will happen anytime soon but sooner are later arab states as well as the chinese are going to sick of importing inflation and the problems that come with it because of the US's mistakes. The mkts will be an even more unpredictible place

My stocks are still going up so what do I care. Volitility breathes opportunity

I've been both brave and foolhardy this week :-) .. :-(

Theres not even a decent range to trade on the DOW today, mind you the last couple of days have seen the action in the final hours...

matter of opinion! ..... i went short first thing this morning when indications were +90

Nothing fundamental seems to be moving it downwards other than an unsubstantiated rumour that a hedge fund is going under. Interesting this causes panic yet the Socgen affair appears to have been brushed over despite futures volumes being a third higher than they should have been. I don't know how much they pay these so called experts to say this had no material impact with respect to the sell off.

the charts on page 1 here will tell you quite a bit ..... also it is slightly concerning that FTSE did not manage to hold 1bove 5900/5910 albeit only a tad below

I think it was 12371 where I closed my position on wall st yesterday evening, have checked the prices a few times today and seen little movement, at that point the market was up just over 100 points.

i seem to have closed out long Dow at 12395 near the bell last night but went short this morning when indicator showed Dow at 12450, which i then closed at 12364

Cynic well called! E

Just been watching a market report on sky, and some analyst from the city (forget who) saying Mondays sell off partly caused by society General covering positions after the massive fraud. And more interesting, suspects that Bank of France hadn't informed the ECB or the FED of the fraud, and believes if the FED had known they may not have lowered rates by so much.

I wouldn't expect any rate cuts next week from the Fed. I think FTSE is high enough for now, with more uncertain weeks and months ahead.

Spitfire do you believe everything the little scribblers say? My bet is on .25% cut.

Not alot I must admit, but even without that I can't see another cut. Financials seem to be suffering again on DOW now.

I must say I took a few chips off the table late afternoon, we may be heading for the final plunge on monday. A further rate cut is essential in order to reinforce the trend, I hope Mervyn is learning from all this as he drinks his Horlicks tonight.

0.25 is being called

The dark side of interest rate cuts
And some Fed watchers say if the Fed delivers a cut, it'll be a sign that Chairman Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Open Market Committee are being bullied by the markets.

"The action this week raises more questions than it answered," said Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fusion IQ, a quantitative research firm. "The Fed's mandate is to maintain price stability and promote economic growth, not backstop the equity markets. That's not their responsibility, but it seems to be what they're doing."

"If they do less than that(0.5 cut), there will be a widespread sense of disappointment or worse throughout the market and that's a headache the policymakers don't need at this point," said Tom Schlesinger, executive director of the Financial Markets Center, a think tank that focuses on the Fed.

Even Ritholtz agrees that the market would have a "hissy fit" if the Fed doesn't deliver another half-point cut on Wednesday and that the Fed can't afford to let that happen

Dow tracking firmly south ..... blood on Monday, though RIO and/or XTA could provide some excitement

you know as well as i do cynic , they can wipe out a 100 point drop in minutes

got some news on rio , xta ?