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 Claimant Count Change -1.5K consensus -5.2K previous -12.5K

GBP MPC Meeting Minutes 0-0-9 consensus 0-0-9 previous 0-0-9

GBP Unemployment Rate 7.8% consensus 7.8% previous 7.8%

GBP Average Earnings Index 3m/y 1.2 % consensus 1.5% previous 1.4%

Davai - 19 Mar 2013 18:41 - 11461 of 11468 - Thank you...

Short on the DAX today.. 8004.8

BOE Minutes Show Sterling, Inflation Fears

By Jason Douglas and Alex Brittain LONDON--Bank of England officials held fire on fresh stimulus for the U.K. economy in March because of concerns that more bond purchases could drive down sterling and undermine public perceptions of the central bank's commitment to fighting inflation. Minutes of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee's March policy meeting, published Wednesday, revealed Governor Mervyn King and two other officials were defeated in their push for more stimulus for the second month in a row. The committee voted in March to leave the BOE's benchmark interest rate at 0.5% and the size of its bond-buying program at 375 billion pounds ($566 billion). The minutes show Mr. King, Paul Fisher and David Miles argued for another GBP25 billion of central bank bond purchases, saying extra stimulus would support demand without setting off inflation. But the remaining six committee members disagreed, saying more stimulus would risk driving up expectations of future inflation, which can add pressure to wages and prices, and also risk causing "an unwarranted depreciation of sterling if it were misinterpreted as a lack of commitment to maintaining low inflation in the medium term." Annual inflation rose to 2.8% in February and is expected to rise further away from the BOE's target this year. The minutes underscore a deepening division on the MPC over how to respond to weak growth and high inflation ahead of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's annual budget statement later Wednesday. Many analysts believe he may tweak the BOE's mandate in a bid to encourage more stimulus and spark faster economic growth. The minutes also revealed the committee believes the likelihood the economy shrinks in the first three months of the year is about 50-50, which would push the U.K. into its third recession in five years. A recession is typically defined as two consecutive quarters of falling output and the U.K. economy shrank 0.3% in the final quarter of 2012.

This guarantees that low interest rate will stay.

It guarentees nothing...

DAX profit taken

German 10-y Bond Auction 1.36|1.6 previous 1.66|1.2

Lowest rates ever Skinny...

Really?

That must cheer the Cypriots up no end!

then can get cheap and offer to Cypriots for profit!

Apparently so, investors were fighting over German debt looking at those figures. Better returns in corporate bonds or shares as you know but it does tell you that sentiment to further buy equities is fading, yields might be attractive but the risk of capital loss is clearly there..

An interesting read here :-

Hunt for yield: Unconventional asset classes widen their appeal

This is the main article -

Risk Management 2013

8021.5 Short Dax, 14542.5 Short Wall St...

any interesting news from the budget, or isn't boy on his hind legs yet?

i see dow has jumped meanwhile, but no idea why and certainly can't disagree with your move to short

Pensions article is so true, all because the industry is obsessed with growth they make unrealistic forecasts of their potential..

Chancellor starts at 12.30 hrs cynic.

Dax is paying well today Cynic, shorting 20pts a time off 8000 or near to.

I must admit that over the past couple of years, I've been buying the likes of RECI & PEW (which I've posted on the chart thread), RECP,MGHU,HICL,JLIF & SREI mainly for the yield, but many have far outperformed more traditional equity yielders.

Eyes down.

It's amazing how they still can't resist any opportunity to have a political dig at the opposition, rather than just presenting the details.