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

Would you trust Trump even if he was in front of you?

I would think many in the states are wondering and quaking in their shoes about their future.

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I quite like Trump, least you know where you are with him. The man's a pure capitalist and the markets have taken taken to him looking at the numbers.

Have just doubled down my short @ 7300...

See what happens overnight shortie, to my mind pointless trying to pick a top. When it does eventually go tits up it will be brutal. Good luck with your short. Didn't think for one minute you had defected to ADVFN by the way :0)

I'm keeping a DOW short open because as you say Chris it will come off big when it happens , i am rather surprised that with all the controversy surrounding Trump right now that it has not wobbled yet .

was out to dinner last night, but the markets (dow) look to have been all over the place, and perhaps similarly o'night

overall, it's clear that trump hardly came across as presidential, and though that is windowdressing to some extent, it does the image of usa no good at all

it could be regarded as a reflection of the above that gold has rocketed once more and has blasted straight through the $1200 barrier

Whilst I'm shorting FTSE the DOW I believe has further upside before any fall. As for picking a top Chris I'm a little more scientific well I like to think anyway! I use Ichimoku clouds to make plays, whilst the FTSE still shows further upside potential it's run its range and needs to find support so I'm shorting to where ever support maybe.

so far so good this afternoon, with DOW tumbling sharply, pulling DAX in its wake (i have a modest short in each)
whether or not that direction will be maintained throughout the evening remains to be seen

Pop !

10 year note @ 2.6 also a factor. Has the so called bond bull market finally been broken?

I've got to admit that I am quite impressed by the Ichimoku cloud trading technique. I'd not heard of it before........will have to do much more research, though the concept of five lines only, doing away with all other indicators sounds ideal! I have a feeling it's not that simple...........if only!

It's not as complicated as some think Harry. When used with rsi and candlestick indicators. The hardest bit I think is setting the parameters correctly e.g. 9, 26, 52 averages which would be useless for anything but daily trading off closing prices. I tend to use much lower parameters as I mainly trade for a few hours using spreads taking smaller profits but changing direction more frequently.

DOW
looking like a string of lower highs and lower lows forming
currently down 20 and near its low for the day after +64 at its peak today

7500 for FTSE soon!!!

HArd brexit and recession already priced in I think.

bullion price suggests otherwise, but the markets are especially difficult to read at the moment as there are so many major and unknown factors that can influence

Yes gold has been moving up for a while now, caution needed.

Gold is still well off its 6 month high @ 1360