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

Bit drastic cynic. I think I am prepared to sit it out and not take any losses yet. Some of my stocks are still paying divis, though only keeping pace with inflation, so am generating a smallish income. Although the markets are bleak atm, history has shown that they will recover in time. Am hopeful that I there is enough time left in my own life cycle to see that!

I've been moving some of my SIPP into even more boring dividend plays HICL, SDV,JLIF and am looking at 3IN,SHRS and similar.

i am very glad that i sold all my sipp funds a few weeks ago as i shall be putting the money to much better use in some freehold commercial property

Ah...... a porn shop!?
Sorry, adult entertainment emporium.

frivolity apart ..... the 11500 level on the dow is technically pretty important ..... i feel that if that level is not recovered very soon, we could easily see further very significant falls

of immediate interest, dow cash has now recovered slightly from its lows of this morning - indicating a fall of ONLY 93 points at the open ..... the question is, "what happens next?" .... yesterday's weak rally fizzled out albeit that dow finished 40/50 points off its low

We look likely to end an 8th consecutive day down - but with very little movement (percentage wise) all week - the question is when the break comes, will it be up or down.

Looking at the smaller cap indices as possible leading indicators, I'm not particularly positive atm...

all i can say is "Phew!! Not half glad i have cashed in my chips"

hanging on for grim death is how i lost a fortune (very quickly) in the dotcom crash

Ouch!

Nokia Siemens to cut 17,000 jobs, 23% of its workforce


Press Release.

Are we going to get a Thanks Giving Rally. ?

possibly as nothing falls indefinitely in a straight line, but that is likely to be seen as a chance to sell into it ..... much forced selling surely imminent as well as already triggered

It might be Thanksgiving but surely not thanking all these bloody politicians most of whom have singlehandedly succeeded in screwing up many a pension pot whilst themselves still enjoying virtually same privileges as before when they retire!!!!!!!!!!It makes me want to scream.........

cash ftse for tomorrow indicates only -30 after dow -236, but i'ld bet it's a lot worse than that ..... sorry to say, but markets look ready to go into freefall

I thought they already were!

Perhaps we've seen nuthin yet

We've seen bigger corrections than this over the last two years. Freefall means.......what? FTSE 100 is heavily weighted with miners which have been hard hit recently, particularly with the Oz mining tax. We've seen 800 point drops and then a recovery. I concede that a Eurozone breakup would see a much heavier drop than that, which I think is the main concern now.

And the US politicians playing brinkmanship with their own austerity measures leading to a will they won't they default debacle again.

I agree, but that will get sorted, imo, just like the previous political juggling when they had to agree to the previous package. They can't risk being accused of crippling the markets for long.

a bit of bear closing today has pushed the market up ...... at one point it was +34 but has clearly met renewed selling (into the rally) and cannot hold as now only +7

Unfortunately have'nt got the technical know how, how to copy and paste US Dollar Index Chart, this is the chart to keep an eye on imho. Think it was jonuk who obliged last time?

Gold seems to have settled around the $1700/oz level, which seems strange given the macro uncertainty.