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

GBP Second Estimate GDP q/q -0.3% consensus -0.3% previous -0.3%

GBP Prelim Business Investment q/q -1.2 consensus 2.2% previous 3.8%

GBP Index of Services 3m/3m -0.1% consensus 0.1% previous 0.6%

By Ilona Billington LONDON--Confidence among U.K. consumers declined in February as worries over the economy increased, highlighting just how tough the road to a sustainable recovery has become. A survey published Wednesday by the European Commission and conducted by pollster GfK reported consumer confidence fell to -16.8 in February from -16.2 in January. All sectors surveyed showed weaker levels of confidence in February compared with January, with the sharpest decline in the services sector, which fell to -11.5 from -6.4 in January. The broad-based weakness meant the economic sentiment indicator slid to 97.1 in February from 97.6 a month earlier, and gives a clear indication of how tough the economic environment is in the U.K.. The Office for National Statistics on Wednesday released its second, more detailed release of U.K. economic output, which showed gross domestic product contracted 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the third. That was unrevised from the preliminary calculation released in January. The U.K., which Friday saw its credit rating downgraded one notch to Aa1 by ratings agency Moody's Investors Service, is struggling to post economic growth while consumers and businesses suffer amid the tight austerity measures imposed by the coalition government. While the government has announced various programs aimed at boosting growth and confidence, a lack of government infrastructure projects at a time of caution among private-sector firms over spending and investment plans means the ailing economy is struggling to gain a foothold on the path to sustainable expansion.

Skinny did you hold a FTSE100 DFT long last night? I picked up a nice dividend overnight...

Hardly a surprise!

Italian 10-y Bond Auction 4.83|1.7 4.17|1.3

On edit :- yes I did - it all helps. I was tempted to close @6,296 this morning for +50 - but didn't.

I also held the BARC & TSCO which I have closed.

I got rather badly burned last week - and not on a sandy beach, either :( So I'm currently staying out of the indices but have been reading a few analysts change their tune this week:
Whereas previously they were talking about 'buying on the dips' they have now turned to 'selling on the rallies'.

This would be my inclination, too. But as I can't always be keeping an eye on the screen, I'm not risking anything for the moment - just savouring my profits on BLNX and on my own activities outside trading

USD Core Durable Goods Orders m/m 1.9% consensus 0.3% previous 1.0%

USD Durable Goods Orders m/m -5.2% consensus -4.8% previous 4.3%

".........and on my own activities outside trading". Being a bloke, my imagination is now out of control. A pointer in the right direction would relieve the pressure a bit! ;o)

LOLLLL Harrycat! :))

I shall let your fevered imagination work overtime - I'm sure it would be good for you!

I'm working on some games, some of which I originally published for the BBC Micro - yes, remember that?? Someone recently suggested I should bring them into the new millennium and produce them as 'Apps'.

So: if you know anyone who could help with the programming/e-marketing let me know :-) I've found a couple of guys who may be able to do it but not sure yet.

Still waiting for Elite.

:) It all seemed so innovative in those days, didn't it!

Pre the micro, I used to write games in COBOL & SCL on a mainframe in quite periods.

That must have been quite a challenge Skinny!

Bleeding edge in 1978! :-)

Like the punch-tape!

Showed my nieces some games on an Atari VCS, laughter wasn't the reaction I was after. Guess there's been a bit of a jump. :)

Apps seems like the days of bedroom programmers - and throw in things like the Raspberry Pi.

Yep - quite a minefield out there, tiptoeing through the bedrooms :)

I'm impressed your Atari is still functioning!

I remember the BBC, we had one at school, but my first computer was the Sinclair Spectrum +2 with its tape loader... Ideal for software piracy as high-speed dubbing was all the rage...

Quite so Shortie - and I lost quite a lot of sales in those days of software piracy. What a fuss those tapes were eh? Kids nowadays can't believe I'm serious when I talk about those lol

yeh except it took The Lords of Midnight about 20 mins to load and the b*stard would only crash right at the end!

Too right Davai, or you'd play a level then have to wait for the next one to load and it'd crash... And the noise to it made. Commodore 64 owners used to get music when games loaded but if you had a 464 or a Speccy you got the horrible sound of data... Roll on the Amiga and it all changed, if you could afford one that was..