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

cynic im long dow . left it late to enter because
a i dont like to trade on a friday usually .. and
b i was worried about the intraday gap down at circa 12871
in fact i still am worried about that so have banked half at small profit and am running balance with tight stop loss
regards
jkd

12940 is certainly an important marker, so it was always going to be prudent to set a limit a little below ...... dow has limped up to 12950 or so and has now weakened slightly but still holding 12940 ..... unfortunately today is going to be exceptionally quiet and of course it's a short trading day too, so no sensible conclusions can be drawn - but promising nevertheless

Closed a Gold long @ 1751.5 + 275 Monday is another day. Got a pint of Tennants Lager with my name on it. Superb day today. Have a good weekend all :O)

Out for a steak and beer as well, have a good one Chris.

bought back into dow at 12967 though only lightly ...... ii haven't checked, but 13005 rings a bell as next hurdle, though it may have moved a bit since

i can see why you bought at that level cynic . well done.
i thought about it but decided not to. going to play safe and defend what i already hold
as best i can for time being. good luck.
regards
jkd

and out again at 13007 ..... IG still quoting cash dow although market closed at 18:00 ..... only a small profit with that last little venture, but not to be scoffed at; at least it will pay for a VERY good meal (for one!) albeit only without wine at the Waterside!

Hi All - I quite often watch and lurk in the background and read your commentaries and analysis of what is happening on the FTSE.

I used to trade FTSE - but whilst I had some good gians - I had several small losses - the net effect was that I seemed to make a net loss so stopped spread betting on FTSE.

However - having made some decent profits on AMER - I siphoned some cash out to have another dabble and have been incredibly successful (lucky) over past couple of weeks firstly taking big profits after Obama's win and then guessing right and riding the short down and then generally (not always) guessing it right as it recovered up to last nigts close - when I banked all my profits for a substantial gain. I have more than made up my previous losses and some - but am now scared to do anything in case I loose the lot and am sitting on my hands.

However - my tendency is towards greed - and this is my gambling pot - when its gone - its gone

My inclination is to set a small buy on the FTSE with a trailing stop loss of 50 points (to give it some room) and to hopefully walk away and come back in 6 months time to see the FTSE in the 6000+ range as the economy starts to improve.

I can afford to loose the 50 point SL as it is about 10% of my recent gain.

What do you think - am I mad - or should I just walk away with a smug grin having been very lucky - and I do recognise it was luck and not skill!

no more so than having the occasional dabble at the casino

Ftse can drop 50 pips in less than 6 seconds, your allowing yourself 6 months? Not exactly stacking the odds in your favour. Better odds, toss a coin and put it all on black or red :O)

Slightly off topic, but as you know I am travelling atm, but decided to take a couple of books with me, one of which is ' Cityboy' by Geraint Anderson. Very amusing but also a little depressing to see how the odds are so heavily stacked against the smaller investor. Awesome insight though as to how The City used to work & maybe still does!

Thanks Harrycat - I'll look out for that! Hope you're enjoying your travels

I read somewhere that only 1 in 5 small investors make money out of trading the indices.

Do you mean this one H/C? http://www.cityboy.biz/?q=node/245

Looks and 'interesting' read :-)

Story of O or Delta of Venus are probably more of a fun read :-))

i had a small dow short running from late friday night, but earlier it looked as though dow was staying quite firm, so i took the profit ..... a bit early as it transpired, but never mind

That's the one Stan. Thanks for the sentiment Toya. Heading up the west coast of India now (Mangalore) & not looking forward to the rough Norfolk weather on my return! I think if India, Pakistan & Bangladesh were to introduce emission controls for all of their vehicles, we could probably reverse global warming in a stroke!
Was hoping FTSE would start pricing in good Xmas retail figures, but maybe forecasts aren't good?

did you go to kerala? i hear it's a wonderful region

FTSE unable to lift through its 50DMA, 9 days until the chancellors autumn statement 05/12/12 and a continuation of UK austerity seen till 2018. My guess is resistance for the FTSE will sit at 5815.

Wall St on the other hand is taking bets that the US economy won't fall off the 'fiscal cliff' and as such no further downgrade will be received in the new year. Lets see if their still smiling by the end of the week..!!..!!

Positive manufacturing numbers last week came out of China.

And in Europe the Greek problem rattles on.

Last week was a retrace and nothing more in my mind, the trend favours the bull but in narrow ranges I feel. Looking to short the DOW this week I think.