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

First deal of the night done, buy at 12314 sell at 12339 - ok range +25 points and for moderate stakes, few more of these and my evens work is done.

More importantly though for those that think I'm mad with a buy trade 12300 seams to be offering good support...!

In on a wall st bet buy at 12381 small stake as high price but think a recovery/rally will come. We'll see, may have to leave open...... hope not.. Could very well prove to be a costly mistake misreading the charts... Fingers crossed

Need to investigate something... up until 9.00pm the DAX was getting hammered down 300+ at around 6700, then within seconds showed down 133.5 at about 6860ish for closing value... talk about gap up...?!

No sooner had i posted that its back running at 6710ish thought last dealing was 9.00!

Looking to the Federal Reserve. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, in a speech Tuesday, said that the report raises the risks of a recession, Briefing.com reported. However, he said that inflationary pressures are also rising, which could limit further interest rate cuts. Lacker is an alternate member of the Fed's policy committee this year.

His comments seemed to suggest the threat of "stagflation," the combination of slowing growth paired with higher inflation, a miserable economic development investors are hoping to avoid.

Last week's monthly jobless claims report and fourth-quarter GDP growth report suggested an acceleration of the economic slowdown. Investors will next look to Wednesday's fourth-quarter productivity report to see if it shows a rise in unit labor costs, i.e. wage inflation, and next week's Jan. retail sales report, amid fears about a consumer spending recession.

Finally opened a spread betting account as you guys seem to have so much fun. If you fancy a white knuckle ride trade the Hang Seng. IG got the open wrong for by about 800 points. Then it traded in a 200- 300 point range hitting the buffers around 4 times in 3 hours. Didn't make much as only played small stakes but a lot of fun

Bloomberg forecasting FSTE to open up 34 points, surpirised by this after the fall in Japan and Hong Kong, but could be volume supporting indexes. My target for this morning is 5750 -118, at some point about 2% down, I will try and get a short position this morning.

am begining to feel more bullish about gold again, there seems to be good support building at 884, have gone long again with 30 point stop, hope to see 950 in next month.

Staying out on ftse for today, will wait for market to digest rate decision tommorrow. Too much on and can't watch it.

no short position yet, will let FTSE settle down first, it's slightly positve now after negative open. Decisions, Decisions.

Carried my open position on Wall st through to today, interesting Nichole Elliott charting DOW head and shoulders and predicting 10500 for Q3/Q4... Shorters dream...

Positions now closed, looking tight in early hours, tempted to short FTSE.

I shorted before the open and its not playing ball. the potential IR cut is probably lending some support. US futures holding up although well off highs

The only thing holding European markets up must be interest rate decisions tomorrow, once these are out of the way there will be only one direction. We are in a recession now, so will be looking to open a longer term short after rate cuts.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic chaps.

Shorting wall st at 12315

Just read a lengthy article, and have to agree somewhat, it pointed out that a (full blown) recession in america is virtually impossible while interest rates are 3% or lower, so although they may well technically be in a recession now, it will be short lived and the prospect of cheap loans once again will be irresistable come the summer, so the real problem lies at the end of the year when the FED will be forced to raise interest rates aggressively to curb spiralling inflation and the full on recession will be later in 2009/10, i feel sorry for any americans who dont figure this out and get into much more debt later this year, because any growth in Q3/4 will quickly be snuffed out...

Keep reading that a quarter point rate cut is a done deal tomorrow, but if the minutes showed last meeting 8 -1 against, i would think its anything but a done deal... I wonder if the Dow finishes up +150 or so tonight but we dont get the cut tomorrow, how it will affect the FTSE, we are lagging behind this afternoon and am currently contemplating going long for a gamble...

I think markets have factored a 0.25 cut in already, if you look at the fed cut last week, they are are not in the the thinking now, a very limited effect. A long on the ftse now would as say be a gamble.

Good thread this. A couple worth watching for trades are MNR and SCHE. Both don't half shift either way and both available in good size to trade. Both should bounce tomorrow with a rate cut. MNR has been a beauty for me bouncing between 130-150p of late. They're both that oversold that a badly timed trade is eventually rewarded.

Agree, bought SCHE this morning first thing @170.5p been up to 183p and back down, could recover into the 400's...