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

that is far from the initial premise you proposed - i.e. cheaper oil = boost for us economy
as in most things, confidence breeds confidence, but why would you feel confident about anything at the the moment, other than continued economic shambles?

cynic because and this is is a big ("if") if the republicans win they will promise economic change and so far we have had little or nothing to stimulate the economy from obama over the past four years.

which would you prefer? ...... mr banana or walter mitty?

bain!

Cynic, I have just read in a french property magazine that portable breathalyzer kits are to become mandatory in vehicles travelling in France, along with the usual spare bulb kit, first aid kit, warning triangle & flourescent jacket! Take care!!!

This is from this week's IC and is slightly paraphrased to reduce the volume:
From Dominic Picarda (FT): "Dow theory has given a sell signal. By dropping through their 18th May lows, the main trends in the DOW & S&P 500 have changed from up to down. Both have also breached what is probably the most widely watched indicator in technical analysis - the 200 day M/A. Another negative development has occured in the Nasdaq 100 - The tech's index's Coppock indicator has given a sell signal.
He concludes that 'his instinct to treat the rally up from monday's low as a phoney, until it is proven otherwise. Further losses are likely based on history' ".

[Coppock Indicators: "The indices for chemicals, tobacco, general retailers, transport, and software/computer services sectors all turned down in May. That leaves aerospace/defense, beverage, leisure/hotels, utilities and banks on hold. Other markets which produced sell signals in may were Singapore & Japan. "]

Davai - 07 Jun 2012 21:10 - 8320 of 8342

All looks too much to me like nothing more than ABC pullbacks right now...

-------------------------

This is what i meant;

Indices have been quite easy to read during the last few trading days. Got the 100 point pull back on the Dow as predicted but the rally on Friday came earlier than I expected. Plenty of upside for the next few days.

Here are my current thoughts as to the Dow. The FIB levels are reproduced from the length of 'A' (not seen to the left of the chart), it looks as though we have completed a full ABC retrace within the uptrend, with the first part ('A') of the correction starting 27th March. This is of course, speculative, but the FIB levels have been deadly accurate for the whole of wave C.
I'm looking for the last Lower High (prev wave 4 as per chart), to be breached tonight/tomorrow for further confirmation, then we can look for a large ABC retrace to begin. This can be sharp/shallow, zigzag/flat or irregular, but if it forms a clear 3-3-5/5-3-5 and doesn't make a fresh low, we are in business for a Higher High to come in a month or so's time and higher for the rest of the summer at least...

Sound crazy with everyone expecting new lows with all the Spain/Euro probs??? Yep that's how it will catch everyone out. I would expect the ABC to be a deep zigzag, just to scare everyone, but if no LL, we are good to go.

here's the chart;

Thank you Davai,
I think $125bln more money in circulation should improve the sentiment. It appears that Greece will stay in Euro and follow the rules whatever the outcome of the vote is.

The British Banks are benefitting from all the problems in Euro as they are considered more reliable than most European banks. They have not been affected, but have been discounted so much based on those issues. As world population is increasing fast, mainly in China and the rest of Asia, we should see higher demand for all products around the world.

the brave, the nimble-footed and the outright liars will have made a nice bundle today shorting the indices first thing - i didn't!

made an acceptable profit on AAPL/GOOG so have banked same ...... markets remain unconvinced and disinclined to move north, so felt like a prudent move

Time to go long

hmm ..... poor call so far this evening, though that is only a few hours

ouch! .... a really nasty late sell-off ..... 1st thing this morning cash dow was +175; as we close tonight, it's -145 ...... like i said, glad i banked a bit of profit earlier this evening

Poor call, why? As a trade it was 30 points or so in profit and was closed out at break even. It's not rocket science but time To reassess.

All about Spain now I presume? Seems absurd that at the open everyone is saying how good it is that Spain have obtained a bailout and then reality sets in and half way through the day everyone realises that yet another bailout isn't going to work! No logic at all, imo.

If ever there was a case of rueing with hindsight - yesterday was it - I'm just annoyed with myself that I didn't make more of it.

very surprisingly (to me), ftse looking to open effectively unchanged

chuckles is clearly a very clever chap indeed .... even if he made no money on last night's escapade, he did unbelievably well ..... i am currently out of rhythm with the indices - i.e. if i traded them, i'ld have the timing wrong even if the general direction right - so have pretty much stopped trading them for now