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

Just a thought. Has Crypto carnage spilled over to Stock market to cover losses?

I think we are currently blaming Credit Suisse. Something to do with VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN. Fully hedged, apparently, but they would say that! ;o)

Dow looking very low to me at 23675. It will be interesting to see what they do with it in the first hour.

Bicycle clips may be required if your brave enough today :)

Strange bounce in the DOW

more strange is FTSE and DAX not really going with it.

Closed half my FTSE long as I had alot. Happy to run the rest or reload if it goes back down.

Edit: And that's the rest gone at 7241. Not sure I understand strength of rally. Concerned it's being used so they can sell off rest of day.

GLS

Yes i noticed that , is odd.

wasn't brave enough to go long anything, though of course would have made a quick bundle - eg on DOW 6/800 points

Beware of the bounce

quite, though the markets have of course tumbled hugely

For what's it's worth and bearing in mind you should trade what you see not what you think is going to happen...

I think although Dow has fallen many points in just a few sessions, I think the rise to 26,500 was so fast it may not bounce. I think we're around the end of December price now so it could fall another 10% yet.

FTSE &DAX look different to me. FTSE is down 600pts on December high and based on my CMC overnight feed went below 7000 overnight so all the stops will have been taken out there.

It would be my view that "they" will want to keep FTSE down here for a couple of weeks, push it even lower if they can. The upgrades will then start to follow in due course. I don't think there's any risk of meltdown as FTSE is mostly underpinned by dividend yield in a much stronger way than it was 2 years ago

100 point swings in minutes. No idea where its going.

.

the brave, lucky, clever and nimble could again have made a bundle today on the indices - of which i am not one

at 07:00 this morning cash DOW was -250
currently +200

I made 50 off FTSE today. But, the more I look at it the more the Dow is where I should be trading

DOW is certainly a lot more lively though DAX is also good in that respect
unfortunately the DAX chart on here is total crap - epic = DEX.

a very disappointing close to DOW last night as a gain of about 200 melted like the snow in spring in the last 15 or so

DOW currently down 800 points. Amazing swings. I wonder if the FTSE will follow suit? Asian markets don't seem too bothered at the moment.

I've gone long FTSE at 7112. Opening position. I'll add close to 7000 if it goes there.

I think this will work it's way through over the next few weeks. Give time for the fear to grow, collect the stock cheap and then watch for upgrades to come through if earnings aren't great.

tbh FTSE isn't that bothered either, considering I took the same trade a couple of days ago about 100 pts lower on ftse when dow was here.

The big question is whether I should hold the trade long term or trade it. Inclined to trade it. I think it will bounce around for a while before the move up

if you want to see how volatile everything has been today, take a look at the DOW ....... low 23,624 and high 24,205 and hurtling around all over the place in between; currently 23770