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

Thanks for all that info Shortie!

USDJPY is moving perilously close to support from 28th Nov. Last week's CoT data showed that the world and his wife are already short the Yen, so it could be that there isn't much fresh money left for further Yen shorts and you'll see a raft of short covering if 81.60 goes.

There are rumoured bids at 81.50 ,but Citi is talking about a full-cent drop if the above mentioned support goes. If that happens, I would expect US indices to follow the USDJPY down.

EURJPY and GBPJPY are also both a bit flakey, but nowhere near the 28th's lows yet and not as weak as the USD imo.

Thanks Hilary - interesting observation, following on from what you posted a couple of days ago.

as i'm off to miami at lunchtime (biz of course!!), i have just banked a useful profit on ftse as 5900 is being challenged again but may not hold it at close - we'll see

I've just gone short at 5900. Happy hols Cynic!

it's one of my specialist conferences, but i dare say i'll find some time to go to the golf course! .... not back until next friday, but i'll try to plague you all from afar

US private sector employment increased by 118,000 jobs from October to November, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report.

Forecast was for between 125,000 and 127,000 according to a couple of reports I've seen

Non-Farm this Friday remember.

yes - thanks Stan!

i wonder why AAPL took a beating today ..... glad i sold hald and banked a decent profit the other day

Glad you got out of it Cynic - was a bit worried when I read yesterday how AAPL is taking a hammering - thought to be due to fears of likely competition

Re AAPL: - From Marketwatch.com
Several factors are believed to be factoring in the sell-off, including technical concerns, worries about the health of the economy and tomorrow’s court hearing in its on-going battle with archrival Samsung in a California federal court...

Another factor was a report from a trade paper in Taiwan that says Apple may be cutting down parts orders for the iPhone 5 for the March quarter. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a note to clients that the report may be “misinterpreted,” adding that such a decline may be expected coming off a launch quarter “and do not believe it is an indication of how units might trend in March.”

5912.3 short applied to FTSE

UK Sep Global Goods Trade Bal Unrevised At Deficit GBP8.4B
UK Oct Global Goods Trade Bal Forecast At Deficit GBP8.65B
UK Sep Non-EU Trade Deficit GBP3.9B Rev Vs Deficit GBP4.0B
UK Oct Adj Global Goods Trade Deficit GBP9.5B
UK Oct Adj Non-EU Trade Deficit GBP4.5B

13046.5 Wall St short applied

S
re dow we have an intra day gap up at circa 13042 (11-17am) plus a couple of other gaps lower,the lowest at circa 13006
im short from 13041 ( before that gap happened) im hoping the lower gaps will be filled before the higher. will take a bit of profit at that level and then watch to see what happens regarding balance.
in mean time i am running my original stop at 13052.
good luck
regards
jkd

13025 is price as i type.
have decided to take half profit at +10( if it happens) and run other half on original stop.
money management reasons.
regards
jkd

First-time jobless claims drop 25,000 to 370,000 in the latest week, U.S. government says.

market reaction is that this is about to expectation

AAPL
an adage that i quote quite regularly is that the market is rarely wrong ..... however, wearing my rose-tinted glasses, yesterday's wallop seems pretty irrational and certainly severely overdone .... sp at opening is likley to be a bit lower again, but having given myself some headroom here the other day, i shall seriously consider buying those back

got stopped out of half at +10 which was high of rally.oh well!
down gap has now been filled. running balance now at original
stop plan.
regards and good luck to all
jkd