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

Pre Market.

Market Watch

Took my loss on FTSE at 6500 and went long - fortunately have more than recovered my losses and now have an sl of 5525 so locking in a net profit. Gold still long and have moved sl up to 1588 again to lock in a nice profit.

I have 4 other shares that seem to be doing particularly well atm. They are AMER (I think I may have mentioned this before !! - But also Ashtead , Standard Charter and Tesco.

I have a couple of dogs too - Centamin - which I bought the day before they collapsed from 100p - but am gradually clawing back my losses, Gold Oil - still a long way from profit and Herencia which is currently at break even. Just in case you were interested - but by far and away my favourite (yes I know we should not fall in love with a share) is AMER - which I think still has a long way to go.

i am getting very tempted once again to short dow ...... i'll let my very good lunch digest for a while longer while i contemplate, but shall almost certainly do so, even if there is a bit of an overshoot of 14550

dow up 60 14510.

long stopped out this morning at 14495 (limit) and now short at 14508

good call this morning cynic - i am temped to copy you on wall st but might wait a while

I've had a limit in @6,549 since our close, which doesn't look like being filled tonight - so that's my lot - good luck with any over night positions.

I'm now @12% cash, which should guarantee the FTSE to 6,600 or higher!

Limit order amended!

The Nikkei closed +1.4% @12,560.95, the highest level since early September 2008.

Its fourth straight weekly gain.

No need to ban UK banks from proprietary trading - Banking Standards committee

LONDON | Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:21am GMT

(Reuters) - A U.S.-style ban on Britain's banks trading with their own money is not needed and would be too difficult to enforce, members of an influential committee said on Friday.

Instead, Britain should use the threat of capital add-ons or other tools to bear down on any bank that shows signs of proprietary trading, said the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS).

The PCBS said a U.S. ban on proprietary trading, known as the Volcker rule, has shown it is difficult to define and prohibit such trading, and it would impose an extra burden on UK regulators who already have to enforce a complex separation of banks' retail operations.

It may be a bit late - but where can I do a spread bet on the NIKKEI 225. I can't see it on IGINDEX

Its Japan 225 on IG.

Currently 505 - 513.

Surely that 8 point Nik spread will exceed trade expectancy???

EUR CPI y/y 1.8% consensus 1.8% previous 1.8%

EUR Core CPI y/y 1.3% consensus 1.3% previous 1.3%

GBP CB Leading Index m/m 0.4% previous 0.0%

Just closed a FTSE position for a nice profit, running with 1 open daily play now.1 hr chart below..

15 min also

interesting to see that, though FTSE is now down 28 points, both C+M and HG+HC indices are still chugging north - no doubt in anticipation of stimulus in those areas in the budget

Doubt it's got further to chug stimulus or not...

Again, looks like a correction is due..

confess i was quite heavily into C+M (no, not S+M!) and took profit in 2/3 this morning ..... however, still have longs in both

I was in the NMX3720 from early August until recently, getting stopped @9,500 when I thought a retrace was due. Hey ho!