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

DOW
well into negative territory once more, so the next notional support (haha!) is 16,100 and that is now only a smidge away

So apart from oil what has spooked markets ?

sentiment ....... once the markets get on a roll, they tend to stay there

however, as i keep on saying - but don't even listen to myself - chinese published annual growth has shrunk for 10 to 7%, but i'm damn sure it's a lot weaker than that (for reasons previously given)

as far as ftse is concerned, there's a very real possibility that the referendum will go against staying, and that will also have profound reverberations around the world

That's months away cynic , although i do agree i wouldn't be throwing money at the markets close to the referendum .

JPMorgan profits jump as costs reined in
JPMorgan Chase delivered a 10 per cent jump in profits in the final quarter of 2015, as reining in expenses helped the US bank weather a still lacklustre backdrop for revenues.


but will that inspire DOW at all
not too likely in the present mood

Just about anything spooks the markets atm. Jakarta bombing was just another excuse today.....and now we have Renault bracing themselves for an emissions scandal (Renault stock price down 18% so far today).

missed that one
any interesting news from BoE?

meanwhile, both main indices have perked up a tad

BoE decision 'no change' as far as I can see.

that was why i asked if there was anything interesting :-)

this afternoon's thrill .......
The weekly U.S. jobless claims report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET from the Department of Labor

Re post 19540, I haven't traded either of them for 4/5 years but IMT was definitely better then BAT to trade, the reason escapes me at the moment.. that's if there was one of course.

chuckle .... i bought BATS as sp was just nudging 200 dma (southwards) and i'm not looking to trade as they're in my sipp ...... anyway, 10p to the good so far :-)

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employment figures have been well enough received (whatever they were), but i also note that chinese futures are down again, putting that index back below 3,000

10p is that all, would have been 20 if it had been with IMT.. (listen to uncle Stan) and before you ask no I don't know the next lottery numbers -):

depends at what you price one managed to buy - chuckle :-)

This is true.

Here we go where to now ? this is starting to piss me off .

typical of these markets ..... DOW has dropped nearly 100 in the first 10 minutes of trading

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at least the cricket's pretty good to watch

if 16,100 breaks, which it is currently trying to do, then i guess 16,000 is next stop

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so bang on queue, it bounces 150 points in a blink

made a quick 35 points and was glad to escape

actually 200 point bounce in <20 minutes!

"at least the cricket's pretty good to watch" how would you know then, you crack on your working.. is this yet more evidence (if more were needed) that you are in fact ..still unemployable