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

Not willing to take the gamble as I believe long term the DOW will go up as already stated in earlier posts so looking to only buy at the lower points of the range. To me this limits the risk of being caught out betting against where the support line will be.

for Dow to break the downtrend, it needs to break through 12800 with impetus and to hold it ..... you're a brave chap if you think that will happen in the immediate future, though with the current contrariness in the market, you may see Dow teasing through, only to fall flat and sharply

Brave..... Not sure about that, the old nerve is starting to go as it looks closer to test... Theres just no momentum at the moment, easy time to get burnt, yes I know but hey I'd rather be in it than saying 'if I have, I could have made'...

The buys now 12734, too high even for my comfort levels, thats me done, nice profit as well this week.... Maybe take advantage of the BRR sp which looks low, means averaging up though but have the weekend to think about it.

confess to being amazed that wall street finished so strongly ... fully expected a big sell off in last 30 or whatever ..... certainly an ace day for me today, and from memory, for too much has happened in the interim, i think a good week overall too

as mentioned above, was very surprised indeed to see strength in US last night but find it hard to trust or believe that it can hold ..... Dow is now very close (12757) to the chart-critical level of 12800 and would be amazed if it blazed straight through that

Charting is a area I have lacked knowledge, so I haved started to study it, starting with moving averages. A Dead Cross is a very significant event, this happens when the 50ma moves down through 200ma and the 200ma also move downwards. Look at the FTSE 100 chart below, this happened appx 7th January, the last time it occurred was the end of 2000 and lasted to 2003.

The price now is moving up, and the resistance should be at the 50ma which is at 6150, this will be a crucial week to decide where the FTSE is trending. I would be interested to hear from people with charting knowledge, if I have read these charts correctly.

Its my belief that charting can give an excellant foresight to market direction if fully understood, that is all, carry on...

well done you guys - I like it when people make profits. I like it even better when I make profits - but for now content to watch a bit and learn a bit.

When the market direction is not obvious, the problem becomes where to set your stop, how much leeway do you give yourself? I was short of the Dow earlier, but left it until i thought the trend was down, ie it was already negative and having placed quite a tight stop, it duly got triggered as half hour later the market rose, it appears to have levelled out right on the level of my stop (typical!). So timing is utmost and perhaps being a bit more liberal with one's stop???!!!

good morning Ted .... i removed the stops from my Dow short, for though i remain confident that it will finish down on the day, it is not impossible that there will be some sort of flourish early on ..... i still maintain that economic realisation will register and that markets will retrench .... quite how far back is anyone's guess

Yes Rich, right with you, just trying to measure if the rally still has any steam left, told myself to be strict with stops whilst i play around and get used to trying to call the markets direction, but as i just stated above, after a short move up (and triggering my stop) the market stopped at that level and is now retreating... its almost as if they knew my limit and did it on purpose..!!!

that often proves to be the case .... or sp falls just after purchase!

Does anyone know a good way to see RSI for FTSE DOW and DAX to establish overbought/sold and if so is there room on this thread for it?

Like this you mean? Just ask Cynic to add a chart into the header.

there are several charts of mine pn page 1!

Dont be lazy Cyners, come on lets have a chart in the header, its sooo much easier to see... i keep campaigning for charts in all the headers, but no-one listens...!

Thanks guys forgot about page 1!

as there are 6/8 of them, i felt it easier to post them separately ..... who's being lazy?

Incidentally, although often used as such the RSI is not an overbought / oversold indicator.