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

Well done Shortie - I was just too quick to close. C'est la vie.

Went short too early, looks like I'll be giving some back

I've just gone short from 12900 - hope it keeps going down now cos I need to make up some losses from earlier this afternoon!

pepsi instead of a fine wine tonight then toya.,.

Good luck with that Toya, can't see why it would stay above 12900, RSI overweight, MACD cross in on 3 min chart below, need a cross on the 15 min + to set longer term direction though.

hey guys and gals, thought i posted this yesterday, but seemingly not ....... BIG HOORAYS FOR LUSCIOUS MISTRESS T WHOSE BIG BIRTHDAY IS TODAY!!

Thanks Guys. You're very good with those chart now Shortie; Skinny will be proud of you!

As for pepsi - no, I don't think so! It's my birthday and I shall be going out for a treat, even if the markets turn against me

Happy Birthday Toya...

Thanks :)

Yes - enjoy your evening.

shortie - am currently in A'dam (biz; promise!) so have been off line all day ...... do you know if there was any reason why dow seemed to dump down to 12762 but is now just challenging 12900 again?

thanks for that skinny ..... i've no idea where you get these funky things of yours, but they're great

Aaah - thanks Cynic :) Sorry I won't be sharing one of your fine wines with you ;) - hope they're keeping dry and well away from the floods!

Skinny - LOL!!! You're too clever with your pix: they're great!

Cynic, its a mystery, new home sales were below forecast but not enough to have made that sort of difference. Boehner 'Optimistic' speech saying deal can be done with President to avoid fiscal cliff I think might be responsible.

Yes Toya, hope skinny is proud of my charts, for me though at least now anyone can see what I'm rambling on about....

Watch the DOW, south aagin...

are you going to tell everyone else how old you are today? :-)

Cynic: ;'U.S. stocks extended losses on Wednesday after data showed new single-family home sales fell slightly in October and the government revised sharply lower its estimate for the prior month's sales, denting optimism over one of the brighter sectors of the economy.'

Cynic - i'm past counting my age :) but I'm catching up with you, fast!

Just closed that short - not risking losing that profit while I'm out1

liar! i know how old you are, but if you're a bad girl, i promise not to tell