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

decided to bank good profit on dow short as shall be out of office for a few hours

GBP Public Sector Net Borrowing -9.9B consensus -9.0B previous 13.2B

GBP CBI Industrial Order Expectations -14 consensus -16 previous -20

EUR Spanish 10-y Bond Auction 5.20|1.6 previous 5.29|2.3

GBP 10-y Bond Auction 2.15|2.3 previous 1.90|2.9

CSR bucking trends

USD Core CPI m/m 0.3% consensus 0.2% previous 0.1%

USD Unemployment Claims 362k consensus 353K previous 341K

USD CPI m/m 0.0% consensus 0.1% previous 0.0%

USD Flash Manufacturing PMI 55.2 consensus 55.6 previous 55.8

Weak growth likely to win euro zone more time to cut deficits

BRUSSELS | Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:03am GMT

(Reuters) - Several euro zone countries are likely to miss deficit cutting targets because of a weak economy, the European Commission is expected to forecast on Friday, but they may be granted extra leeway rather than face disciplinary action.

The European Union executive will publish economic forecasts for the 27-nation bloc for 2013 and 2014.

German Ifo Business Climate 107.4 consensus 104.9 previous 104.3

Busy reporting week for the house builders next week.

Monday 25th BVS,PSN.

Tuesday RDW

Wednesday BDEV

Friday TW.

CAD Core CPI m/m 0.1% consensus 0.2% previous -0.6%

CAD Core Retail Sales m/m -0.9% consensus 0.1% previous -0.3%

CAD CPI m/m 0.1% consensus 0.3% previous -0.6%

CAD Retail Sales m/m -2.1% consensus -0.3% previous 0.2%

a spiffing week in the end, despite that nasty hiccup (hiccough?) yesterday ..... did much much better today than make good those paper and crystalised losses ..... by some fluke, i have even managed to get the rhythm correct for both dow and c+m index, both of which have proved very profitable indeed

long may it continue - fat chance!

You will be able to retire soon!

8---)

apart from wanting (need is something else) to fund my high maintenance lifestyle, in theory, i can retire now but i'ld quickly get bored and need to find some other people to annoy - so i stay on in the biz on a consultancy basis, and work (almost) as hard as i always did

i see dow is quietly sneaking up on that 14,000 level again

I wonder if the markets will ever stop going up against a back drop of awful global national fundamentals?

there is so much money washing around because worldwide interest rates effectively offer zero return

just as well, because the man or woman on the street is going to find it increasingly difficult to survive in an environment that is costing more and more by the day.

But wait a minute, all that money washing around doesn't get anywhere near the man in the street, its makeing the rich richer whilst trying to give the impression that economies are in good shape.

When the BoE, FED, ECB and the rest of those idiots turn the taps off watch out.

But leaving all that aside it would appear that the dumb index would like to have another stab at recent highs

not exactly true; much of that money will belong to pension funds and the like ..... though i agree markets are probably over-cooked, world economies are now on a recovery tack - yes, i agree that the eurozone still stinks though uk isn't as bad whatever fred and others like to blather about

and the percentage of the great unwashed that have made provision for their pension future?

as I said, the rich get richer.