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

Surprisingly quiet on here considering todays turn of events, my dummy run would be doing well now... dare say i would have closed it much earlier though...

everyone is too busy making money shorting the dow :-)

Still expecting a short term bounce later this week with a cut in interest rates by the BOE so may be a few last minute day trade bargains before the next big sell off

Will make my trades tonight on Wall St.... Want to check out the volitality before placing a bet, we have seen the upwards draft before on low indicies, careful you don't get caught out by the 'looks cheap to me' investor....

Evening all, Dow -290 now an looks like its stabalised over the last few hours.... Bet all those shorting will be very happy, I suspect not many will hold their positions open into tomorrow..

where from here I wonder, may see a pull back if the bargain hunters come out. We seem to be yo yoing between sellers offloading positions, and the bargain hunters. Could FTSE range between 5500 to 6100.

First deal of the night done, buy at 12314 sell at 12339 - ok range +25 points and for moderate stakes, few more of these and my evens work is done.

More importantly though for those that think I'm mad with a buy trade 12300 seams to be offering good support...!

In on a wall st bet buy at 12381 small stake as high price but think a recovery/rally will come. We'll see, may have to leave open...... hope not.. Could very well prove to be a costly mistake misreading the charts... Fingers crossed

Need to investigate something... up until 9.00pm the DAX was getting hammered down 300+ at around 6700, then within seconds showed down 133.5 at about 6860ish for closing value... talk about gap up...?!

No sooner had i posted that its back running at 6710ish thought last dealing was 9.00!

Looking to the Federal Reserve. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, in a speech Tuesday, said that the report raises the risks of a recession, Briefing.com reported. However, he said that inflationary pressures are also rising, which could limit further interest rate cuts. Lacker is an alternate member of the Fed's policy committee this year.

His comments seemed to suggest the threat of "stagflation," the combination of slowing growth paired with higher inflation, a miserable economic development investors are hoping to avoid.

Last week's monthly jobless claims report and fourth-quarter GDP growth report suggested an acceleration of the economic slowdown. Investors will next look to Wednesday's fourth-quarter productivity report to see if it shows a rise in unit labor costs, i.e. wage inflation, and next week's Jan. retail sales report, amid fears about a consumer spending recession.

Finally opened a spread betting account as you guys seem to have so much fun. If you fancy a white knuckle ride trade the Hang Seng. IG got the open wrong for by about 800 points. Then it traded in a 200- 300 point range hitting the buffers around 4 times in 3 hours. Didn't make much as only played small stakes but a lot of fun

Bloomberg forecasting FSTE to open up 34 points, surpirised by this after the fall in Japan and Hong Kong, but could be volume supporting indexes. My target for this morning is 5750 -118, at some point about 2% down, I will try and get a short position this morning.

am begining to feel more bullish about gold again, there seems to be good support building at 884, have gone long again with 30 point stop, hope to see 950 in next month.

Staying out on ftse for today, will wait for market to digest rate decision tommorrow. Too much on and can't watch it.

no short position yet, will let FTSE settle down first, it's slightly positve now after negative open. Decisions, Decisions.

Carried my open position on Wall st through to today, interesting Nichole Elliott charting DOW head and shoulders and predicting 10500 for Q3/Q4... Shorters dream...

Positions now closed, looking tight in early hours, tempted to short FTSE.

I shorted before the open and its not playing ball. the potential IR cut is probably lending some support. US futures holding up although well off highs

The only thing holding European markets up must be interest rate decisions tomorrow, once these are out of the way there will be only one direction. We are in a recession now, so will be looking to open a longer term short after rate cuts.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic chaps.

Shorting wall st at 12315