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

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

AAPL
money married mouth at 521.00 ,,,,, spp flying all over the place, so fingers x-ed and wait and see

Good luck with that Cynic. I read this today:

Apple's losses continue to weigh on the tech sector with Chief Executive Tim Cook telling BloombergBusinessweek that the company "screwed up" with launch of mapping application.

There's are a number of key economic indicators due out in the UK and US on Friday, with the market's focus likely to be on crucial employment report Stateside scheduled for release at 08:30 in New York (13:30 London time).

Thanks for the reminder DreamCatcher.

I found this an interesting read:
Are stock investors going insane?

The chap with his mouth open has gone insane, Toya. lol

Interesting read.

not a bad old day really ...... AAPL buy at 521.00 this morning was absolutely a good call, and have just banked most of the profit on my dow long

Anyone know what the consensus is for the non-farms tomorrow?

93k

Buba got out of bed the wrong side this morning. All this is 30 mins old now....

Buba Raises Germany's 2013 Jobless Rate Forecast to 7.2% from 6.5% in June; Sees Jobless Rate at 7.0% in 2014 [DJ]

Germany GDP forecast of 0.4% in 2013 sugg a negative quarter if Q1 stagnant as est; so far no "recession" but est negative Q4, 2011Q4 -0.1%

Bundesbank sees inflation at 2.1% in 2012, cuts 2013 to 1.5% vs 1.6%, 2014 1.6%; economy still good shape/clouded, downside risks to growth

Bundesbank cuts Germany GDP forecast 2012 to 0.7% from 1%, 2013 to 0.4%(!) from 1.6%, 2014 at 1.9%, contract in Q4, stagnant 2013Q1

U.S. payrolls grow by 146,000 in November. Unemployment rate falls to 7.7%, lowest since December 2008.

rockets away!