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

i am very puzzled that ftse remains so strong whereas dow is now a tad below 17100 and down another 90+ points since friday close

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fingers poised to have a small long dow

Short and staying short still... Its a day of doing nothing on the markets but twiddling fingers and watching....

have banked my profit on ftse short

got a bit excited and went long dow a bit early at just below 17,100

cashed in too early for +50 pts, but at least it was a decent profit ..... too pre-occupied elsewhere

Another day of large swings. Certainly tests the ticker.

wonderful fun :-)
have traded dow several times today, and though only relatively small stakes and assuredly haven't bought/sold at bottom/top, it has been another good day .... and have had the discipline for once, to close all o'night

Added to FTSE short positions.

that's interesting .... while i concur that ftse has been surprisingly strong in the light of a persistently weak dow, the latter is now looking pretty perky and, imo, is due for a solid bounce if nothing else .... so i am now mildly long dow

I'm taking a slightly longer term view on the FTSE with my bets as not got the time for hourly or even day trading right now. I'm placing smaller bets than normal.

Can we have an all blue day like today for the next 4 weeks??

it's still here you blind old duffer :-)

well i'll be b*****ered couldn't see it.,,

delete

No, ticker CHAR.

found it , cheers Harry

European Central Bank said late Wednesday that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral.
"In short, the ECB has commenced cutting off Greece's cash lifelines," explained Mike O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.
Greece's new government has been suggesting different ways for it to repay its massive bailout debts to its European partners, but the ECB move shows it faces an uphill battle.
Market watchers continue to warn that a Greece exit from the eurozone is still in the cards.

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neither ftse nor (especially) the dow are currently taking any notice at all
slightly strange

US jobless
the forecast is that 230,000 jobs are expected to have been added in January, down from 252,000 in December, while unemployment is thought to have stayed at 5.6%

the collapsed oil price means that the oilies are shedding shedloads of employees, though of course many of these are other than in usa .... nevertheless, there will assuredly be collateral losses throughout the suppport industries and so on down the line

US jobless
US adds 257,000 jobs in January, unemployment rate at 5.7%

The economy created 257,000 jobs in January compared with a revised 329,000 in December. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose to 5.7 per cent.

Economists had forecast a tally of 230,000 and that the unemployment rate would hold at 5.6 per cent.

America's labour market proved a consistently bright spot for the economy last year, with monthly job growth averaging 246,000 last year. That is up from an average of 193,000 in 2013.

Expectations not met then.

which bit didn't you read? :-)

i'ld also guess that this brings a rate rise rather closer, except $ is already very strong against other currencies