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

Waiting on the vote..

Cyprus parliament to consider deposit tax; European stocks fall

NICOSIA | Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:31am GMT

(Reuters) - Cyprus's parliament votes on Monday on a plan to seize money from bank deposits as part of an EU bailout, a move that has sent a shiver across the bloc, caused the euro to tumble and stock markets to dive.

The announcement at the weekend that tiny Cyprus would impose a tax on bank accounts as part of a 10 billion euro (8.6 billion pounds) bailout broke with previous European practice that depositors' savings were sacrosanct.

EUR Italian Trade Balance -1.62B consensus 2.11B previous 2.11B

EUR Trade Balance 9.0B consensus 10.4B previous 12.0B

Update on the above :-

NICOSIA | Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:27am GMT

(Reuters) - Cypriot ministers rushed on Monday to revise a plan to seize money from bank deposits as part of an EU bailout, in an effort to ensure lawmakers supported it in a vote later in the day.

EURO ZONE CRISIS LIVE

Euro zone leaders have "crossed a dangerous Rubicon", says Reuters' economics editor Mike Peacock:

Re Crisis live.. think i'll wait for the highlights thanks skinny -):

I wonder why - Russian anger at Cyprus bailout levy

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said a levy that bank account holders in Cyprus must pay as part of bailout deal looks like "confiscation".

Russian President Vladimir Putin called it "unfair, unprofessional and dangerous", while the finance minister said Russia may reconsider the terms of a 2.5bn euro loan (£2.1bn) to Cyprus.

Surely because Cyprus holds a huge amount of russian savers' cash. Not sure why the wealthy russians have favoured that particular country to deposit their cash, but I could have a guess, which might be libellous, so I won't!

Harry - sorry - it was facetious and rhetorical :-)

Ah, gotcha. Far too subtle for my brain to compute!

what a very strange day ..... was initially shut out of my HG+HC position butr was making almost an equivalent amount on Dow short ...... bought back into HG+HC and made back 2/3 of my crystalised loss but ended up banking just a very small profit on the Dow position!!

shall now keep watching to re-open Dow short

Talking of the Russians did I here that they were/are hiving Gold away a while back?

We don't know why we are laughing at the cypriots because of their spendthrift former communist run government, thanks to Gordon Brown's extravagance in trying to buy votes labour left the famous note to George "there is no money left".Anybody seen "Prudence" lately, perhaps she is lying on the beach in the Bahamas with Tony and Gordon.

Over the last few years, Cyprus has become a magnet for Forex and Binary Options brokers. The attraction is that it's a geographical crossroads for western and eastern Europe and the Middle East, and also their tax laws are quite lax.

Some brokers have been proactive today in advising clients that their funds are held safely outside Cyprus. Others have been eerily quiet. I do hope that no news is good news.

EUR Italian Industrial Production m/m 0.8% consensus -0.3% previous -0.2%

GBP CPI y/y 2.8% consensus 2.8% previous 2.7%

GBP PPI Input m/m 3.2% consensus 1.7% previous 1.3%

GBP RPI y/y 3.2% consensus 3.3% previous 3.3%

GBP Core CPI y/y 2.3% consensus 2.2% previous 2.3%

GBP HPI y/y 2.2% consensus 2.6% previous 3.3%

GBP PPI Output m/m 0.8% consensus 0.2% previous 0.2%

From DP of IC today:
"European equities recovered their poise remarkably quickly yesterday. After a violent initial sell-off in the DAX and FTSE, both staged impressive comebacks. Based on this performance, we may have longer to wait for a more substantial correction to occur. In this environment, I would still seek long positions in these two indices for the moment. At the same time, I favour shorting EURUSD in particular, which is the more obvious way to play jitters over Cyprus and the Eurozone story more generally.

Having bounced back impressively quickly yesterday, the FTSE is currently trapped below its 55-fourhourly EMA (6456.8). I am hopeful of continued recovery to 6535 initially.

Position trade: A swing-chart buy-signal would be good for re-entering.

Day trade: A push above 6475.3 would get me long today."

EUR German ZEW Economic Sentiment 48.5 consensus 47.9 previous 48.2

EUR ZEW Economic Sentiment 33.4 consensus 43.7 previous 42.4

1Hr FTSE 6436 seams to be current support, I'm hoping for it to break.

1HR EUR/GBP, maybe some short term support here, 50DMA cross with 100DMA both on downwards track is interesting. I'm short expecting furhter to go..

Euro-Zone Construction Output Falls Sharply

By Alex Brittain Output in the euro zone's construction industry fell sharply in January, wiping out a modest improvement in December and adding to signs that the bloc is heading for another quarter of economic decline. Construction output in the European Union as a whole--which also includes non-euro-using nations such as the U.K., Sweden and Poland--fell to its lowest level since January 1997. Eurostat, the EU's official statistics agency, said Tuesday that construction output in the 17 nations that use the euro fell 1.4% in January from December and was down 7.3% from the corresponding month a year earlier. The month-to-month drop was the steepest in four months and follows a modest 0.3% increase in December. The fall in year-to-year terms was the most severe since May 2012. Output was likely to have been hit by heavy snow in parts of Europe in January. The figures come after Eurostat's measure of factory output in the currency bloc also fell in January. Together, they show the region's economy made a poor start to 2013, lengthening a 15-month economic downturn that has exacerbated its fiscal crisis and pushed unemployment to record levels. Tuesday's figures showed construction output rising 3.0% month-to-month in Germany, but falling 4.0% in France, underscoring the divergent fortunes of the euro zone's biggest two economies. While Germany looks set for a relatively quick recovery, boosted by its strong exporting industry, France is expected to struggle for growth as its government pushes through measures to curb borrowing levels.