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

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) – European shares steadied on Tuesday, with some investors using the previous sessions' steep sell-off to buy back into the market, but uncertainties about the broader implications of the Cyprus bailout kept a lid on any gains.

"We hooked masses of selling yesterday afternoon, but in the absence of a 'bad news chaser', now we can have the quarter-end rally, so watch those new shorts being squeezed," said Justin Haque, broker at Hobart Capital Markets.

So guys: beware of short positions. I took profits yesterday and have just gone long on the FTSE at 6380.

Had a wonderful slide on my Spanish short first thing today!

despite WOS's spotty results, HG+HC Index is roaring yet again - unbelievable performance in recent weeks

Hmm, not sure my long FTSE was such a good idea... it's already going against me :(

Cynic - WOS isn't a constituent of NMX3720.

i'm amazed .... anyway, that index proved to be a veritable duke of york this morning .... glad i didn't allow myself to be suckered in

btw, from where does one glean the constituents of this and the C+M indices?

Household Goods & Home Construction

That post from skinny #11606 is worth a read cynic. Appears you are a dying breed!!! ;o) but even though the french are consuming less, the chinese are now drinking as much as the french can export.

i recollect that french wine consumption has been on the decline for a number of years - prob since they decided rat-arsed drivers after a rabelaisian sunday lunch really were too much of a menace for their heritage to bear

you're certainly right that the chinese are buying up a huge %age of french fine wines ..... it will have great snob value at a dinner, even if they then commit the sacrilege of mixing it with coca cola

skinny - many thanks for that list .... surprised how many of those names i have never even heard of! .... can you grab the C+M list too?

Same site cynic.

Osborne is speaking @10am.

assumed so, but equally assumed it was a "protected" site

Why pay if you don't have to :-)

FTSE
i have copied the following from one of GF's sites this morning .....

The FTSE this week has finally broken its downtrend on the news over and uncertainty over Cyprus. After 5 down days in a row the FTSE managed to pick up a bit on Friday, but failed to retake the trend line.
Expect a retake of the trend today but a failure to make a new high suggests a correction looming.

I'm short on FTSE and DOW today. Watching the DAX also.. 1hr Charts below

DAX daily below, thinking of going long..

Shortie, re the DAX, I noticed this yesterday (Reuters):

Berkeley Futures associate director Richard Griffiths ... said clients were looking to buy "put" options on the German DAX < .GDAXI> equity index, which give the right to sell an index in the future and are often used on expectations of a market fall.

I've closed my long FTSE at a miniscule profit as I'm not sure which way it's going to go.

Nothing much out til later today.

10:00am GBP Chancellor Osborne Speaks

11:00am GBP CBI Realized Sales

12:30pm USD Core Durable Goods Orders m/m

USD Durable Goods Orders m/m

1:00pm USD S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI y/y

2:00pm USD CB Consumer Confidence

USD New Home Sales

USD Richmond Manufacturing Index

4:30 pm CAD Gov Council Member Cote Speaks

Thanks for that Skinny.

This little snippet made me smile: 'Russian businesses are unlikely to continue to patronize Cyrus. Press reports quoted one Russian businessman’s wry observation that the EU had killed Cyprus in one day: “When the Russians leave, who is going to stay at the Four Seasons for $500 a night? Angela Merkel?” '

Thanks Toya, Jeroen Dijsselbloem backtracked on his comments yesterday and rumours of a Moodys downgrade on Italy yesterday turned out to be just rumours. I'm thinking the Euro should recover a little with the DAX being rallied as a result.