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

despite another set of appalling US housing figures, Dow has somewhat perversely staggered upwards ...... of course, that is everyone banking on another minimum 0.5% cut by Fed ...... meanwhile, European central banks do bugger all.

while one might argue that Fed is taking something of an alarmist stance, Bernanke will argue rightly or wrongly, that the Fed is at least doing something positive to try to head off the worst effects of any recession.

meanwhile, the European banks stand back and assume that Europe will blithely absorb and float through any US troubles ..... that has to be head in the sand stuff!

Cynic you are absolutely right , if you keep your head in the sand you get stuffed!

feels like bears gathering again, european banks report next month, more blood expected, think short positions in equities and even precious metals might be good for next week

very hard to call .... many forces pulling in opposite directions at the moment, but certainly one needs to be very watchful and nimble if trading

by the way, assume you do not mean to short precious metals

Sold out of JKX, and bought back in the next day, (wish I could do that all the time), trouble is I get caught out sometimes !

Just opened CFD account, will have some fun with some fairly small positions to start with!

Don,t forget the stop losses Big Ted, and be prepared to take losses because you will have some as well as gains, Good luck !

Ted ..... if trading indices, you really need to be watching constantly ..... are you with IG?

Just a snippet from todays FT:
"Britain & the US are in for a very serious recession according to Philippe Jabre, the Geneva based hedge fund manager. He predicts only a short lived bounce on the stock markets & warns that those people who are exposed to heavy debts are going to face problems".
He also predicts that Soc Gen will now be a target for BNP Paribas (for those who trade in european stocks).
Of course he could be wrong. Just another opinion to throw in to the mix!

well good durable goods orders but you can,t have it both ways so what is the Fed going to do?

we all know they are going to cut rates ..... major prob however are the krauts in European Central Bank who think they can do a better job than Canute

i don,t think we do know , the press is really giving Bernanke a hard time i.e. that he is hand in hand with Wall St

or worse , doing what they tell him

Bernanke is between a rock and a hard place, I would think he will cut, and if does and we have any sort of rally afterwards. Be ready to take advantage of short opportunities, I have a feeling FTSE could go back down to 5500 level and lower very quickly.

note Dow's reluctance to break (minor) resistance at 12460 .... will be interesting to see what happens after Fed statement and first 10 minutes of euphoria ..... unfortunately have been seduced away from my screen for the evening

Currently debating opening a position again on wall st..... Am thinking 12400 or lower for a buy, nothing in the range today though.. Its the greed speaking I know it but all the same very tempting....

I did mean precious metals,it is a bit like standing in front of an express train, did well from it last time, predicted would drop from 914 to around 860. May prove to be luck but I Currently believe that fed rate cut of 50 points is in the price and there could be some pull back on profit taking especially when traders cover positions in the likely sell off as the european banks reveal their probably bigger than expected write downs.

I do have a tight stop, and it is for a small stake, it is highly risky as there is repeated buying on all sell offs at the moment and the power cuts in SA are not helping my cause. But it's fun to see if I'm right.

However I am also long term long and have been for a while, but nothing goes up in a straight line and gold is currently out of the recent bull channel by a long way. So I expect a pull back, there certainly seems to be more resistance at 930 level currently 921 as I write

Here we go, I expect gold to drop to 880 in the next 2 weeks then carry on up, wouldn't be surprised to see it go to the much touted $1000 by end march then pull back as oil price weakens, then off we go again as inflation really starts to take hold along with flight to safety and the inevitable sun readers getting in too late ie 2009 3rd quarter!!!

Chances of being right?

Wish I knew...:-)

Morning all, FTSE seems to be in fairly small trading range of 30 points, markets waiting for the FED decision expected at 16:00 GMT. I can't see a cut less than 0.50bps, unless they go for broke with 0.75bps.

We had a trading update from Oakdene (small housebuiler in southeast ) this morning, which was awful, makes interesting reading. Because with the recent relative strength from BDEV & PSN, it may be worth looking at a short after the FED rate decision.

I'm not so sure, with the possible over-exuberence of the emergency cut in the light of soc-gen write down, they might be tempted to show a bit more steel and just do a 25point cut.

However this is helicopter Ben we are talking about, and he'll do anything to avoid a crash, just hope he remembers today in a couple of years time when inflation is ther problem and he raises aggresively again with the same results as this time round.

Most markets seem to be waiting and watching.

decision announcement is at 19:15 GMT