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

thanks for that link Ted .... had come across it before but had competely forgotten it ..... very useful and interesting ... shame they do not do same for FTSE, though that will tend to follow suit, at least to some degree

Hi Big Ted

I also use CFD with the TDW, but the commission they charge is very high, which puts me at a disadvantage to start with. I'm in the process of changing to a spread betting a/c, no commission, they make money only on the spread and overnight financing charge. Like you I hadn't looked into spreadbetting, but was very pleasantly surprised.

just clicked onto link ted, hadn't seen it before, but very good site, will keep in my favourites.

Thankyou...........

Some Spread Betting firms make money on the overnight financing ,some don't ,CFD's always do .

Richard, welcome back to UK, everyone else, good luck, as always, i'm hammered...

I dont mean i'm always hammered, i'm not sure what i meant, *damn*...

Never seen signalwatch before, have just bookmarked the site as another source. Good link Big Ted, thanks

wasn't that far away .... only in Nice for a conference .... at least that had its compensations

Nothing much to do with FTSE at moment but quite interested in the concept of shorting commodities after reaching all time highs e.g. platinum today wheat last week. This is obviously a slightly dangerous game and so only a small stake is to be used but just in terms of oil and gold which hit 100 and 937 short term it seems to prove a good strategy as consolidation/profit taking seems to occur after peaks irrespective of supply demand issues or speculative driven movement. Any comments?

Not sure of the time scale you mean, gold has already pulled back from high of 937, and is now on its next leg up, where the next top is, is anyones guess, general consensus is, fatigue at 935, and possible pull back with several s/t supports, or if 940 broken then on way to 975... Im sure there are going to be several different takes on the subject, currently i wish i didn't just do a dummy run when i went long on gold thursday at 907...!!!

Anyone have any views on direction of dollar vs stirling or know of any good sites with that kind of discussion/info? I thought it would be nailed on that the pound would be gaining strength against dollar? views?

I read somewhere that G7 met at the weekend to allow the International Monetary Fund to sell some of its $92bn in gold reserves. I guess the effect maybe some weakness in the short term, before testing recent highs again.

Gold isn't something I have followed that closely, but hope the info's of some relevance.

Dow below 12,100.Looks like they didn't like AIG's update...I currently have no position.

who or what is AIG?
anyway, Dow trying hard to recover or struggling to stay above 12100, depending on which way you want to look at it

Would imagine we have determined a bottom for the day, just watching to see how far it climbs intraday, but a close near session lows could see 12100 failing for good...

AIG... All industry groups within the sector are lower. Multi-line insurance (-9.2%) is the main laggard due to the weakness in AIG (AIG 44.90, -5.78). Other insurance areas are under pressure, including life & health insurance (-3.3%) and property & casualty insurance (-2.7%).

rechristen/reincarnate you as Cheerful Charlie Chester (from same era as The Crazy gang with Bud Flanagan, Monsewer Eddie Gray etc etc)

I only said 'could'... lol

Just opened a bet sell at 12207...

are you not worried that they keep bouncing back from each piece of bad news?!

Dow is moving in a very narrow range tonight .... be thankful for small mercies and hope that it does not dive in last 30