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

Morning all - just popped in to say hello.

I stopped trading the indices a while back as I was losing more bthan I was winning. But - i decided to have one more go and put a £10 sb on the FTSE at 5420 which I finally cashed in yesterday at 5920 (albeit by mistake) recovering all of my previous losses plus some.

I am determined now to stay out as I consider the last gain of over £5000 more luck than judgement.

Good luck to you all - I will pop in from time to time.

o/t - probably my best investment over the last 12 months has been in AMER - have been from the 2p days, now at 26p - with more to come imv - maybe worth having a look if you are into oilies.

You should write a book - well done :-)

Goldman Sachs posts its first loss in Asia since 2008

US investment bank Goldman Sachs swung to a loss in Asia for the first time since 2008 following declines in the Chinese stock market.

Goldman's Asia division posted a loss of $103m (£65m) in 2011, compared with a $2.1bn profit in 2010.

The firm was hit by a dip in the value of its holdings in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which generated a loss of $517m.

finally start correcting

cynic , as i said before , that short entry could start to be now hugely successful...but panic put you double red now...all of asc 1.45k gone ?

CAD Ivey PMI 66.5 v consensus 62.1 previous 64.1

DOW down over 150 certainly is super tuesday!

Not an index I look at often but the AIM All Share is getting a hammering today - over 5% at one point. A big "risk off" day for sure.

wish i'd had the balls to keep running my dow short, but completely screwed it up ..... only positive for me today was my BOR short

have now shorted dow again (a bit late as have been playing golf), as target down has now become 12250

Closed Ftse short @ 5750.3 + 145. Dollar Index may hit resistance @ 79.92 be interesting. If it doesn't I have closed to soon :O)

Well done Chris. A bit like Cynic, I "could have done better".

.

Thanks skinny. should have mentioned re Dollar Index chart it was actually (Capital Spreads) March contract when I referred to 79.92 as possible resistance yesterday.

German Factory Orders m/m -2.7% v consensus 0.6% previous 1.7%

Points on Greece -

1,The Mail has reported that Greece are making large land sales.

2,Greeks in the U.S..and they are saying ALL Greeks there are sending money
back home to friends and family.
We don't know just how much ,of course, but injections like those might make all the difference to a struggling nation like Greece.
I don't think any economists have factored in this sort of funding into their calculations.

Greeks abroad love their home country and their assistance should not be discounted.

Short UKX @ 5783.5 Stop 5802.0

oops and out sharpish 5793

Coward :-)

Dollar Index going south mate, Apple strong Dow strong?

Greeks apart!