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

Crazy. I just added to my FTSE long at 7026.

this has been a gruelling week, and DOW continues to look seriously shitty
for the last hour or so, it's been struggling to recover above 23,600 and is heading sharply south once more at 23,450 (down 400)

I get why it's pulled back from 26,000.

I get why the pullback has been quite strong. Certainly 24,000 wouldn't seem unreasonable given how fast it went up.

The way it's continuing to sell off seems to me to be overdone. After all it was good news on the economy that kicked this off.

As for FTSE it was holding up pretty well today and at least made sense. Most of the data was good at 9:30 just the Brexit talks not going well, which seems to be the same message every time.

I'm a bit nervous about my long now. In at 7070 on average and not a large stake so I have plenty of firepower left but I think the reset is going to take a few more days.

I was planning to hold my FTSE long for about 7300 but I've re-appraised that. Would be happy with 7150 right now. Might even let it far lower. I've no conviction in the trade now!

chuckle .... downright scary isn't it .... one feels the indices are testing ones pain threshold, and they're doing a grand job!

ha. They've tested mine. I've sold three quarters of my position at 6095 for a few quid.

In at one position at half usual opening stake. Happy to let it roll or happy to reload if Dow craps itself again.

I would expect it to fall into the close at it's a Friday but frankly it could do anything

so out of spite, it is now nicely +50 though it has been a tad more within the last 30
managed to close one DOW long with 75 points profit and heaved a sigh of relief

And out of last position 7145 which appears to be +120 in three and a half hours.

Well done. Bit of a scary ride. I'll reset if it goes back down.

take a look at the 10-minute DOW chart from yesterday
there were occasions when it moved 200 points within a given slot, and you wonder why it was impossible to trade according to the trend

i managed to make a few shillings on some quick trades ..... normally i'ld have been very pleased, but given the hammering over the last week, it was little more than a crumb

although DOW is well off its high, it looks to be showing good resilience - still +200

DAX is also holding together well - still +250

FTSE is still pretty much at its day's high - +110

DOW exploding - now +425

Crazy times. Where will it close today. Who knows.

currently +520

Augers well for tomorrow

FTSE
testing 7,300 at long last .... it's really struggled to break back north of that level, but just possibly next week will show it's more than just a tease



DOW
25,300 hurdle now well cleared, so just possibly we'll see a chrge back to(wards) the all time highs ...... i confess to remaining nervous after last week's massacres


Monday is a holiday in US, so perhaps a false market today ...... who knows?

DOW
having powered through 25,300 it suddenly collapsed again ..... i was lucky to buy towards the bottom end of that, and sold out at 25,290 for 105 points, above which number, DOW is stalling once more

very early doors but worth noting that DOW is once again trying to push north of 25,300

According to economic calendar US has a bank holiday today so guess today is going to be really slow

you're right CC ..... had forgotten that but markets may still be open

DOW - bought on a sudden dip this afternoon at 25,138 ..... rather missed the bottom of that spike down, but no matter
currently just back in the blue at 25,226 and have again put in a limit at 25,290