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

U.S. Jan. manufacturing PMI 55.8 vs flash 56.1

I expect the DOW will find this positive, too

I am still running with my short albeit at a loss atm. This just cant keep going against he news- can it??

bhunt - 4 minutes to find out! :-)

USD ISM Manufacturing PMI 53.1 consensus 50.8 previous 50.7

USD Construction Spending m/m 0.9% consensus 0.6% previous -0.3%

USD ISM Manufacturing Prices 56.5 consensus 56.3 previous 55.5

.

Harry - I know its apples and oranges, but :-

Small short @6339

I like charts, so don't feel guilty about posting variations. Shame there isn't one in the header so that I don't have to keep posting them.

Harry - one of my favs.

Wow - what a chart! I hope this is not the way the DOW will go 'cos I've just gone short at 13990 - simply irresistible. My earlier short from 13930 is not looking so happy but I'm sure it will cheer up soon...

was thinking of buying (again) having bought in a little earlier at 13942, but 14000 may indeed prove a resistance, purely as a psychological round number - and indeed, i note it has pulled back marginally from that level

Its been a tough week!

Do you buy your fruit and veg in Lidl or summat, Skinners? Gotta say I ain't ever seen an apple or an orange which looks anything like 10790. :)

Hils - its an idiom or is that idiot! :-)

Are you sure the thread's big enough for more than one idiot? :)

Credit Suisse's Humungous Gold Call

Dell braced for $24bn buyout offer

A buyout proposal for Dell valuing the computer maker at about $24bn is expected to be unveiled early next week, said several people familiar with the situation.
An announcement would mark one of the biggest leveraged buyouts, and bring to an end weeks of speculation about the fate of the world’s third-largest PC maker by shipments.

Skinny, re post 10777.

Those Scottish Rugby Players obviously didn't get up to speed with the financial markets before playing :-)

Latest comment from DP of IC:
"The rally in the FTSE 100 and EURGBP goes from strength to strength. While I have been predicting further upside in both, the sheer power in Friday’s move took me be surprise, especially in the case of the single currency. With benign monetary conditions, positive seasonality, and improving economic fundamentals, it would likely take a nasty macro shock to cause all this to come off the rails. A couple of years ago, the Japanese earthquake and Arab Spring caused a Q1 wobble. The most likely candidate today would surely be the ongoing fiscal uncertainties in the US.

For today, I would be looking for long positions in FTSE, DAX and EURGBP, and seeking shorts in GBPUSD."

USD Factory Orders m/m 1.8% consensus 2.3% previous 0.0%

Still running with my short - was a bit hairy at times - seems to have flattened out at 6245 - so now setting a SL at 6255 - nice

edit - now stopped out