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

FX CHAT: Slowdown in U.S. data complicates life for ECB

This is the last thing ECB President Mario Draghi needed. A day after his press conference left the impression that European policy makers don't have any bold new measures up their sleeves to ease monetary policy, the weak labor report in the US is prompting traders to push back expectations for when the Fed will start to wind down its bond purchases. That's keeping the euro supported, and the single currency briefly jumped above $1.30 recently, complicating the recovery for Europe's struggling peripheral economies. Euro has pulled back a bit since and is trading at 1.2991, from $1.2936 late yesterday, according to EBS via CQG.

14468 is the DOW support line, doesn't look yet like it'll end the day broken.... Could be wrong though! Any thoughts?

CAD Ivey PMI 61.6 52.4 51.1

Looking for a silver lining to today's disappointing jobs report? Stone & McCarthy says it's the trend that's important. Looking at the first quarter of jobs reports, payrolls increased an average 168K a month. The six-month average is 188K a month, still near the 200K pace the Fed seems to be watching for. "It could be worse," firm's Terry Sheehan writes. "The underlying trends for improvement still seem to be in place."

as am only just back on line as have been travelling all day, did not dare leave my juicy ftse short running so banked a decent profit yesterday ...... don't grizzle you miserable old git, for you DID leave a good-sized dow short running, so yummy yummy and overall just about running a profit on the day ..... can't be bad!

someone asked a few posts back to where the indices were heading ......
my guru says
FTSE target 6125 - currently 6222
DOW target - currently 14465 - left open, but if you take a view on a 12.5% retrenchment from say 14550, then it sounds very silly indeed - but then so did the upside target of 14550 only 4/5 months ago in November

very pretty hilary, but do you disagree with the view in my post?

.

I don't pay any attention to targets, Cyners, so I don't have any view on your post I'm afraid.

That's nothing personal. To me, markets are either going up or down. Once you start thinking about where they might turn, that's the time you start getting into a mucking fuddle. I'd rather wait until they have turned, and then act accordingly.

All I know right know is that Shinzo's winning the currency war, Draghi's losing it and there are some central bankers in Zurich with very squeeky bums.

Back short on the DOW again.

thanks hilary .... i am not hidebound by targets, but they are useful guidelines ..... as it happens, i have just cashed in 60% of my Dow short as i'm whizzing about a bit

Love the currency analysis Hilary..

"squeeky bums" - just done a quick scan of my "technical terms" - nothing!

You'll need the female version matey..

Shortie,

Here's my GJ chart. I've been buying this since I woke up yesterday morning and saw the bottom oscillator had turned up in Asian trade overnight.

Very nice, I debated geting on the band wagon also and expect I will do once I've wound out of other positions. Bloody hefty margin though required, some 250 times stake for a 60Y bet..

I trade it with 1:200 leverage raw spread ECN with FinFX (Finland) and FXCC (Cyprus).

Edit: I made a mistake, sorry - I only get 1:100 leverage at Fin.

S&P maintain UK's AAA rating........ up yours Delors!!!