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

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

dow is celebrating your birthday too - now suddenly +50 and whizzing ...... surely not just on that bottel fizz you're getting through

Glad i closed my short when I did - it's shot up again. Anyway, closing odwn now

have a great evening luscious one :-)

Hi Toya - I dont know you as well as the others - but let me join in wishing you a happy birthday - hope you have a great time.

Bas

o/t RNS for AMER today was positive (found 2 more columns of oil) but vague on amounts with further updates due next week - this had a negative impact on the sp today - but I remain confident of more positive news next week.

I am starting to sound more and more like a ramper for which Ii apologise. No more mention of AMER on this thread - prmise

I've just remembered why I hate trading the DOW.



Toya - I hope you don't feel like this in the morning!

Morning All - Skinny: no, I don't tend to suffer hangover; I think over the years (decades?) I've learned that it spoils the night before!

Bhunt: thanks for your b'day wishes :) Your Long should be nicely in profit.

I wonder what today will bring?? Need some coffee to think

Nationwide HPI m/m 0.0% consensus 0.2% previous 0.6%

for myself, closed long dow at 12977 last night as i already had limit in place at 12990 and was not convinced 13000 would be breached ..... however, i see cassh dow is 13006 this morning