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

700 down then 50 up now 100 down

as soon as I get my money out, I'm switching cause Selftrade are hopeless

If the price of oil keeps on dropping the falkland oil stocks will be reduced to pennies because the price of crude could drop so much that their projects will no longer be worth their while and would have to be put on hold !.

Ftse is looking like a total disaster....don't know whether to sell out or stay put !.

That was the problem investors had in 1974 & 1987 and it looks absolutely horrendous atm (so maybe we are not far from turning up), but just like '74 & '87 the markets will recover, imo of course.
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I hope so because years of hard work watching stocks, and profits are all going down the plughole at the moment !.

there is a rumour going around that they are going to shut the SM's on Monday.

US will be shut anyway

just been denied

So they WILL be shut then.
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Is cynic ok? I've not noticed a post from him since early this morning. Maybe we should check all posters are still around. Ha! Ha!
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not present....

thanks Geoprge, your concern greatly appreciated .... have taken a severe battering along with the rest of the world, but am glad to say, did the "right thing" this morning and then spent the rest of the day on the golf course .... having seen the frantic gyrations of Dow, am more than glad i was well away from a screen!

Shorts taking profit for weekend by the looks just rallied to 8650! Nuts ! Glad you are in one piece Cynic

I need some advice from you experts---I have an account with fin and done very badly so far! I decided to stake my last 95quid on shorting the dow on open. I bet 2 pound a point and watched the dow plummet. I should have been quids in instead I watched as the total got to -1000 pounds!!! I tried to close several times and it wouldn't let me---I kept trying and suddenly the order screen went blank and now my account shows -5. Do you think the co couldn't cope with the crash or do I owe them a lot of money? I thought you couldn't exceed the funds in the account for a start. sickening to think my short was right and I still ended up losing! A fool and their money-- Never again!!!

Probably best to ring them asap moneyplus, good luck the dow is a monster at the moment!

thanks F.

m+ .... certainly if you had left a limit (or a stop) it would have been enacted

It was a bit of a mystery to be honest--I had an upper stop of 8100 put on 2 a point and pressed sell---then I watched the dow plummeting but a minus point beside my trade which looked alarmingly like spinning wheel! each time I pressed close and the buy button I got a message saying the trade wasn't within the limits and couldn't be carried out as I only had 95 in the account you can imagine my horror to see the minus figure heading towards 1000----I got on the phone and the dealer told me to press close and then buy--I then read him the message. Suddenly the trade disappeared and my account shows -5.45. I've checked again this evening and it says the same---so I'm keeping everything crossed that I've escaped at this. Annoying though to know that I did the right thing but still lost---that's it for me with spread betting, I think it's a rip off!

mp - I think you need to check your statement and check exactly what trade you placed. Are you sure you placed a sell order? I know it sounds daft, but I've pressed the wrong button myself a few times and watched in horror as I've opened a trade which immediately goes against me! If you did indeed short, check the charts against the trade and see if Fins skewed the market long at open, personally I doubt this is the case as astute traders would have filled their boots and shorted from higher up. Assuming that you have done everything right I think you have a case against Fins for your loss (and perhaps lost profit) sounds like their platform threw a hissy fit.

Edit. The reason you couldn't close your position manually was probably because the platform had worked out your stop had been hit and was in the process of closing automatically. This makes sense as you probably had close to a 50 pt stop at 2 which more or less equates to your overall loss.

m+ .... pth's last comment is certainly valid as i have come across that myself ..... i don't know who you were using for your trading, but imo IG are first rate and their stops and limits work properly, though you need to be aware that there are occasions when a guaranteed stop/limit is required to ensure that the price you meant is indeed the enactment point - hope that made sense to you.