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

Hmmmm - OECD sees economic traction in U.S. and Britain

PARIS | Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:57am GMT

(Reuters) - Economic growth appears to be gathering traction in the United States and Britain, while China and Italy may be about to turn up, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Monday.

Signals continue to point to weak growth in Germany, France and the euro zone as a whole, however, and likewise in Japan, Russia and Canada, the Paris-based OECD said in a statement on its monthly composite leading indicator (CLI).

The OECD said its October CLI reading for the United States and Britain remained above 100, which represents the long-term average of economic performance, rising respectively to 100.9 and 100.5, from 100.8 and 100.3 in September.

What a strange ol' world... I wouldn't like to go long at this level of the FTSE somehow (currently 5921)

Merv the swerve speak later this afternoon.

Ah thanks Skinny - didn't know that! When??

5:15pm.

I shall miss that - off to Pilates then! But no doubt he'll say something uncheerful

Is the sky up!

:-)

It would depend if you were standing on your head.

EUR German ZEW Economic Sentiment 6.9 consensus -11.4 previous -15.7

EUR ZEW Economic Sentiment 7.6 consensus 0.1 previous -2.6

GBP CB Leading Index -0.4% previous 0.2%

Ever upwards then!? That ZEW Sentiment level is a surprise, isn't it?

Bernanke speaks tomorrow, so the market will be moving up in anticipation of continued Fed action...

I've closed the 5920 short at a small profit, and will now set one at 5950. Still not sure if we can continue this upward path!

Discuss!

You remind me of my history teacher, Skinny - lol :)

Interesting to see the high in March at around 5950 - may be that's not such a bad level for my short, then - at least in the short term.

I suppose that if it breaks convincingly above that, then we will see continued upward movement.

Seems like 5950 could be a key resistance level??

Is that a triple top I see?

It is - but I was reading on a US website that a similar formation is currently on the S&P chart, and the analyst concerned (can't now recall who it was) didn't believe we would really continue upwards. It doesn't necessarily have to be the case - does it??

I thought a triple top or bottom, was a potential reversal sign?

There was a similar pattern in the 1st half of 2011 - It was discussed on this thread I believe.

Ah right - thanks Skinny. That makes a lot of sense to me!

I'll have a look back at 2011 as well

Have a look here starting at post 6011 - obviously the chart is current and of course it could all be wrong!

Bear in mind that latest polls suggest the LDP are heading for a comfortable victory on Sunday and the Japs are likely to be very quantitatively eased. That money's gonna be looking for a home....

Yep - as ever - interesting times!