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 didn't expect 6900 either! Are you sure you are not trading the DAX ?

bhunt: at least gardening is productive, though I've not done as much as I should have been out there. Hope you find your head again, and Cynic his scalp!

Well, I've been on the golf course and won 2 so nothing lost on the markets today, in fact I engaged in a bit of FTSE scalping earlier and made 4!!

Well done a profit is profit, I finnished scalping up 28, but should have done better, I just can't sit and watch the computer all day. I played Golf last Friday and won two Golf balls, I can't play for money, even 3 euros a round makes me nervous!!

Well spotted Falco - perhaps thats where I am going wrong -looking at the wrong index!!

On some platforms it's quite easy to trade dax instead of FTSE, and I'm not talking railway stations or 70's shoes here. In fact I actually made a profit (unsually) by doing just that!

At 7pm the FTSE was +77 and the Dow + 103.

At the 9pm the FTSE was +53 (-24) and the Dow -3 (-100). The dow is so much more volatile than the FTSE. I would have been happier if the FTSE had dropped 100+ points !!

Lets hope te Hang Seng and Japan are weaker overnight

made a minor loss being long Dow yesterday evening, but have made that up and a bit more shorting o'night ......

to me, it is almost inconceivable that we are not in for another very difficult month's trading with all sorts of potentially horrid figures to come out of the financial sector woodwork over the coming weeks.

what happens thereafter (aha! May = go away?) is anyone's guess, much depending on whether the interest rates to come, and more importantly, the effect of those now in the past, start to take the desired effect on consumer confidence, especially in USA.

DOW dipped after the bell last night with Alcoa posting earnings below analyst's expectations and is a stock according to Bloomberg that is a bell-wether for how companies are dealing with rising commodity prices, ie not very well!

Morning all

I must start keeping an accurate record of daily movement of major indices, I have a feeling that FTSE has gained more in percentage terms against DOW and DAX for example. So I would assume a correction is due, but without the data to back this up it is just that an assumption.

Will have to look at the charts again too decide.

FTSE is probably taking some comfort from a likley rate cut due this week (i think)

Miners are also sky high

Rate cut due Thursday, feels like the market is expecting 0.25 cut, can't see BOE going further than this.

for your contemplation ......

Euro
i think Euro could be very close indeed to the top of its cycle against .
some time back, my memory is that i was told 12700 would be the limit, though this has subsequently given way, with level now at about 12545.
0.25% UK rate cut surely already built in
European Central Bank will probably continue its no change stance

however, the (over)strong Euro is already hurting European exports, so in the reasonably near future, my guess is that either ECB will start cutting rates, or the Euro will fall out of favour as the perception is that it is not such a good place to put money after all.

Seems to be a good scalping range ftse between about 5958 to 5970 at moment. I'm up 4 now, at least it's a profit, and good practice for me.

Fair bit in the press about Ireland, Spain, Italy wanting to bail out of the Euro, rates seem to benefit Germany mainly. If they jump ship the currency would disentegrate it is argued!

although Alcoa's figures look to be disappointing,apparently sp rose 1% after hours on their issuance

Just had a look at Eur/Gbp chart, quite a formidable rise since August! Would be nice to trade the turn around but not easy to guess the right entry

Falcothou where do Ireland, Spain and Italy jump ship to, the US dollar, sterling the renminbi? They have burnt their boats the euro is here to stay for better (for some) or worse. A lesson for us perhaps!

I think the suggestion was back to their old currencies. Unsure whether they have kept the notes and coins in one huge lock-up for a rainy day