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

FTSE has moved ahead again - now +33 - so with luck DOW will tag along

actually, with DOW now at 17095, i may bank this morning's profit .... shall certainly now keep a watchful eye so to do

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banked 30 points which is better than a kick in the nuts
shall now wait to see if 17,100 is (re)pierced with any impetus

cluck cluck cluck :-)

DOW now at next resistance of 17,140
and ditto FTSE at 6125

blinked and missed ....... dow suddenly roars to life (17175)

with mild bravery have gone long FTSE at 6130

all very confusing at the moment
still in the money on FTSE but not comfortable that DOW doesn't want to hold onto any gains, notwithstanding last night's awful showing (and ditto the day b4)

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decided to back out of FTSE with joke profit and shall revert to watching

Closed DOW for 62 points , like you say it doesn't seem to want to rally but might be worth another punt down lower ..

as i have written b4, i see 2016 as a year for shorting, but i don't know from what sort of level ....... as with longs, i'll probably duck in and out - and at the wrong time of course!

Strange day all in all ...

very small long DOW 17,101 ...... bit silly in many ways, but just trying to prove the level is fine to make a turn :-)

So do you hold and stay long overnight ?

maybe ..... not a good call at the moment, but small enough that i could easily afford to average down - even more stupid :-) ..... but have quite a good couple of days which has been fortunate

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sure didn't expect 17,000 to come back into play as now looks a distinct possibility

Long for the night 17060 :)

chuckle
yes i note the recovery in the last 20 minutes or whatever ..... was marginally tempted to top up but did not

limited out at pre-set +45 .... it's gone a bit higher since, but no matter
more concerned that it doesn't all fizzle away

17180 is looking worryingly stubborn ..... time will tell

Put a stop on at 17100 got taken out in the night so just below 40 points. In hindsight maybe should have cashed in at 9pm with 108 points and here we go again we are at 17060 :)

Down we go some more ..

DOW
i don't know why this has turned so negative o'night (korean bomb?) but the question now becomes whether or not 17,000 will hold ...... i suspect not

Yep tis the bomb.