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

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

19:15 GMT will be watching with interest, I would think Bernanke would want 0.25 cut, and I believe this would be the right thing to do. But the markets will influence him to cut more than he would like.

I noticed we had negative notes about RBS and Barc today from citigroup and panmure gordon, citigroup said both are a sell, I had to laugh with citigroups recent track record, but I guess they should know. Or are we just seeing some sour grapes.

Currently cant make head nor tail of new CFD account, would poss like to short the DOW later, anyone else use TDW...? help???!!!

All US banks/investment houses are vulnerable after their massiv writedowns takeover activity is likely, before long Citigroup could well be a target.

I'd wait as shorting DOW today very risky, shares like Experian are doing very well and their core business is the banking sector suggesting somethings cooking. Look back and you'll see that the increase in interest rates made the credit house share price fall, a lower rate could indicate more credit coming back onto markets.... IMHO..

Hi Big Ted - When you have the trading screen on TDW it will open in the popular share screen. Dow is shown, and can press either the trade button or the order button. I find it best to use Order, if you wish to short you can click in the Limit Sell. Then you can set the price you wish to enter the market, followed by your stop/loss, then your target price in the next box. Then press the place button and the order will be in the system waiting for the price to move your way.

You can change the stop/loss or limit prices at any time using the edit button, when you open active orders or open positions.

Be careful today and if you are going to trade, I wouldn't leave a position open while the FED are making the interest decision. (very risky)

Good Luck

very very tricky isn't it ..... i have current profitable shorts in SOLA and AL. but am wondering whether or not it would be prudent to take profits in some of my long positions

thanks for that, as i figured to be fair, but couldn't see if i could use a guaranteed stop, appears not???

I have no open positions today, FTSE trading in a small range as will DOW untill news breaks... Have taken all profits as not worth the risk IMO should no further reduction come, also 25 basis points will do little for confidence...

Ok so i know i should be asking someone at TDW, but does each order always require 10% of total placed, cleared in account, cos i haven't transferred any across yet, just tried a dummy run and it didn't suggest how much the order would cost me...
Also when using trade button typically to deal on DOW CFD, when it asks you number of CFD's? what do they cost? is it same as points? ie around 12440p per CFD at present? sure thats wrong!!!

would it not be nice to have accurate foresight, even if only for this evening ..... one could then make a bundle on the Dow as it gyrates wildly, as i am sure it will ..... i cannot even begin to envisage to where it will peak or trough ... could easily be 200 points in either direction from the present, or even both

if TDW work similarly to IG, then you will need to deposit some funds with them .... if you have been trdaing with them for a long time so you have a history, TDW may allow you to run a pre-determined amount of margin debt

may have a little play with Dow using guaranteed stops

Will be playing Wall St also tonight Cynic, I think I'm set for a very bumpy evening..... Because of volitility though will trade without stop losses in place as I've experienced plenty of times when the downward/upwards peak touched my stop loss and sold/bought, very annoying spikes like these.....

Big Ted, I use a spreadbetting account to play longs/shorts, unfortunatly never placed a CFD and don't hold this type of account.

may i suggest that the only safe way to do this is with guaranteed stops - IG charges an extra 4 points in and ditto out, + usual $15 commission x 2 per contract - contract = $10 per point.

without guaranteed stops, market move could easily miss your "ordinary" stop by miles.

are you looking to go long for now?

Hi Big Ted I believe you must have 10% of the position in your account when dealing with shares, but 5% with indices. Example if you take position of 10 points on DOW this would be $120,000 worth, but the required in the account is I think 5% eg $6,000. Minimum points to place starts at 3.

i am shocked , he has done what they told him again

just in time for the punters to rush out and buy their 50 inch flat screen tvs for the superbowl on cheap credit