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

Awww

Bernanke due to start speaking again at 15:00 - now that is!

NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Wall Street opened little changed as investors awaited a second round of testimony in Congress by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for clarity on the longevity of the Fed's economic stimulus program.

Calming some jitters over the euro zone, Italian debt prices and European stocks rose on Wednesday after Italy sold the maximum amount of bonds it planned to offer in a debt auction though borrowing costs soared.Bernanke will make his second appearance before the Financial Services Committee at 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT).

"The market got what it wanted yesterday from the Fed, so, as long as (Bernanke) doesn't say anything new, the market is likely to remain as status quo," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manger of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

Toya - A friend of mine had the zx81 with the rubber keys, it was the machine that originally got me into computers as the BBC at school had a dull green screen and was rather boring... I was fortunate enough to enter the market with a Spectrum 128k which I actully still have boxed in my loft with a load of old games...

I remember Manic minder, what ever happened to software writers Ocean who used to be the bee's knee's when I was a kid and produced all the best games??

USD Pending Home Sales m/m 4.5% consensus 1.7% previous -4.3%

Orders for durable goods minus transportation rose 1.9% and advanced for the fifth straight month. The gain was the strongest in more than a year, signaling that manufacturers continue to benefit from a slowly mending global economy, higher sales to American consumers and a pickup in business investment in the U.S.

“This was a really strong report as it indicates that businesses felt confident enough to order a ton of big ticket items in January,” said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.

phew! got out of jail as had got myself rather over-exposed (Mistress T getting excited again) with long Dow ..... have more than recovered and now banked a decent profit on most of that at 13971

Looks like we could be heading for 14000 again - and I shall be tempted to short the DOW at that point. I was doing all right with the DOW recently; don't know why I then went back to trading the FTSE, when it was clearly off on its own tangent. Ah well...

FTSE been alright for me, mind you been long so can't complain... DOW does look attractive for a short at 14000 but resistance has been pushing higher recently. 14050 for me will be the short.

One caveat to the rebound in stocks, which is being led by strength in cyclical sectors, is that Treasury yields keep falling. The 10-year yield, down 2 basis points today to 1.859%, is on track to drop for a 6th-straight session and sit and a 5-week low. If the economy really seemed strong enough to offset worries about euro-zone politics and sequestration, shouldn't yields be bouncing too? Remember that Treasurys rose on a price basis (yields move inversely) for 8 sessions in a row, ended Sept. 25. That preceded the last significant pullback in stocks. From then through Nov. 15, the S&P 500 fell 6.1%.

Bernanke to Congress: Don't Let Sequester Take Place

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday repeated testimony to Congress, defending the central bank's monetary easing and warning Congress against letting looming spending cuts take place.

"Given the still-moderate underlying pace of economic growth, this additional near-term burden on the recovery is significant," Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee.

In testimony Tuesday, Bernanke strongly defended the Fed's easy monetary policy and said there was little risk of a spike in inflation in the near term.

14050 is a better level Shortie, you're right

meanwhile, my other "scary punt" HG+HC index is also now nicely in the money

Closed my FTSE +71 and reversed !

Great trade Skinny!

Stocks advance after Bernanke balm


Wednesday 16:00 GMT. Markets are more positive than of late as optimism that the US economy – with continued central bank support – can overcome fiscal constraints helps counteract the return of eurozone jitters.

The dollar index is down 0.3 per cent though moves in major industrial commodities are mildly muddled. Copper is off 0.2 per cent to $3.57 a pound and Brent crude is adding 6 cents to $112.77 a barrel.

I think we do need to be careful though, that what's happening in the Eurozone will likely have an impact in the US before too long

Thanks Toya - I've closed the short -2, looks like a breather and more?

We've just hit 14000

Still long on the FTSE, not closing just yet.....

and couldn't quite hold, so have sold balance at 13993 .... thank you very much, says the bank manager

You should be fine with that Shortie - it often gets a power-surge at around 16:30!