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

Mario @2:30pm

German WPI m/m 0.3% consensus 0.4% previous 0.0%

So much for my ideas of the FTSE falling further before it climbs back up. I'd gone short yesterday at 6315 thinking I'd got a good deal... And on top of that, I got whacked with some 'Short FTSE Dividend' fee - having only been in that short position for a matter of hours :( I've not had such a bad day in ages!

CHF PPI m/m -0.1% consensus 0.2% previous 0.1%

Mistress T - you clearly need some of my comfort food; rotten luck

Thanks Cynic - certainly need some comfort. Anyway, I'm getting over it and will live to see another day

perhaps i should turn out a spotted dick for you!

with cream???

Thanks chaps. I'm not so keen on the spots in the dick. I shall have my sticky toffee pudding (with dates) and custard

more likely to be pus-coloured custard

he always drags it down........lol

Mmmmmm slice of hairy pie....

Last nights DFT dividend on the FTSE100 was a biggie Toya, would have been paid to you however if you were long, I feel your pain as also got slapped with this...

Et moi!

Shortie/Toya - when and how often is that levied - I don't recall seeing it before, "price adjustment" my eye!

EUR Industrial Production m/m 0.7% consensus 0.3% previous -0.7%

Skinny: yes, complete pain, and I never know when it's going to happen, though I think there is some logic to it somewhere. I've been caught out once before. But as Shortie says: if we'd been Long then we'd have had a nice bonus!

Well, I'll just have to earn that back - I thought things had been going too well recently...

I wonder if that explains my disparity in FTSE prices yesterday evening between IG & CMC just after our close?

I think that was the time it was applied Skinny - cos I remember that at around that time I thought I had plenty of margin and the next it seemed to have vanished!

It looks like it was applied @22:00 - I had the disparity much earlier - I must find out as and when it is levied - I don't recall having fallen foul of it before.