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

Seems like strong support at 13450. FTSE seems to follow Dow during trading hours and dow futures out of them!

Dow is all over the place, but certainly trying to finish on at least a strongish note ..... believe 13650 is quite a critical number

this is all looking very gruesome unless you are running shorts and/or long bullion ..... nevertheless, we are still a very long way from being in a bear market, but watch out!

yet again, i suggest you take a look at the various charts that i posted at the beginning, and then make your own mind up as to whether (some of) the indices are about to bounce, or if traffic remains firmly south-bound

Broke through the 13450 support and down to the 13380 support from which it has bounced

If dow ends at these level then will be an interesting start for the ftse 100 with opening below support of 6400. Will take a view tomorrow morning, I have no open positions at moment.

am running shorts in Dow, NRK and SOLA .... closed short FTSE prematurely, albeit at a respectable profit

heard on radio that LSE had glitch at 4pm making ftse swing wildly causing an extra hour of auction for trades to be processed

and just closed Dow short ..... can't be bothered to watch minute/minute so took a very respectable profit as index swinging all over the place

Wish I had the foresight to go short on ftse yesterday, but I'm only blessed with hindsight. For traders who have shorts still open, I think you will have a very good day. Good luck.

with hindsight, i wish i had had the balls to keep running both my Dow and FTSE shorts, but in truth that would have been totally stupid, as the market could just as suddenly have changed direction ...... a profit is a profit!

am inclined to think that the indices will bounce today, but that may well be just hope over expectation, and certainly the charts give no solace.

nevertheless, because i am a total tosser (no comment please!!), i have taken out a small FTSE long, though shall be monitoring constantly.

Going to be very interesting for gold and dollar, if BOE or ECB cut rates

doubt very much that either will cut ..... why should they? ..... further, it is dangerous for not only will it signal further major underlying problems, but also stoke inflation say 2 years down the line

DOW futures currently -24. Are you still long the FTSE, cynic? Brave call either way.

yes .... but only opened that pos this morning (ditto Dow) ...... FTSE very nicely in the money

How things change. DOW now +14. The midas touch, cynic!

i wish! ..... if i was that clever, may have left yesterday's shorts running ..... anyway, any profit helps offset paper losses on my long portfolio ...... that said, i really not like the feel of the markets at all and am trying to persuade myself to gently liquidate at least part of my holdings

Rates held at 5.75. 12.45 for ECB

strange day ..... FTSE was pretty much unchanged throughout despite gyrations in USA ...... DOW was inicated to be down quite a lot, up quite a lot, tanked at opening and is now uncertain what to do with itself.

for myself, i closed FTSE long with a reasonable profit, but left DOW long open (there are today's FTSE profits to play with!) and keep my fingers crossed that at the very least we shall see a DCB by close of biz.

What prey tell is a DCB ?