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

wall street rallied quite strongly into the close on friday night, dragging cash ftse up in its wake .... however, with fresh rumbles in the eurozone (the north korea sabre-rattling will quite correctly be ignored), is there any reason to suppose that the markets will not in fact continue their southward track?

I'm staying short of the DOW for now. We're into the new 'Earnings Season' this week, and analysts seem to expect disappointing 1st-quarter figures.

Also, I reckon that the US market can't continue to ignore what's happening in Europe - and I've been reading that Portugal (as Hilary points out above) and Slovenia (though much smaller) will be looking for a bailout.

The German DAX took a nosedive on Friday (as did other major indices of course) but one report I saw (I think on IG) talks of the DAX possibly continuing down to 7560 - that's another 100 points below where it closed on Friday.

BHunt: sorry to hear you got it so wrong - I was going to say "it happens to us all" but maybe some here are more fortunate. I've been lucky recently, since my disaster a few weeks back.

money now with mouth .... taken up a ftse short at 6274

Yen slumps, Nikkei up on bold BOJ - U.S. jobs, N.Korea weigh

TOKYO | Mon Apr 8, 2013 7:32am BST
(Reuters) - The yen tumbled while Japanese stocks and government bonds rallied on Monday as the Bank of Japan lost no time embarking on its ambitious stimulus drive, but weak U.S. jobs data and regional risks such as North Korea weighed on other assets.

European markets were likely to inch higher, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX to open as much as 0.5 percent higher. U.S. stock futures were up 0.1 percent to suggest a firm Wall Street open.

Shorting the Euro/Sterling and Wall St, another short on wall st just done

Hilary - Looks like your still at the GJ party..! 151.53 at the moment and gathering speed... Are they looking to become the worlds carry trade again????

Still adding to the long side, Shortie. I won't close until that lower indi on the chart I pasted turns down on the hourlies. Maybe later today or tomorrow morning possibly, but I'm chilled with it.

I bet you are, that's some movement over the last week.. A new set of diamond slippers anyway... All the best to you..

Well, to be fair, it had only been giving scraps for daytrading over the last month or so. It's nice to have something to sit on for a bit longer than 24 hours for a change.

European government bond yields fell to record lows Monday as last week's Bank of Japan action to stimulate its economy continued to weaken the yen and boost asset prices more generally. Portuguese bond yields were the outlier, rising on concerns about a court ruling that blocked planned austerity measures. Ten-year government bond yields in France, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands hit record lows and the yen fell to multiyear lows against both the euro and the dollar. Portuguese 10-year government bond yields climbed to 6.49% before easing back to 6.42%. "The move higher in the U.S. dollar/Japanese yen on Friday and overnight, despite the disappointing U.S. labor market report and the subsequent drop in U.S. yields, underlines that the yen-depreciation trend is very strong," Danske Bank said in a note. The Japanese currency neared the JPY100 per dollar mark and Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose to its highest level since Aug. 18, 2008. Fears for Portugal and Greece resulted in a slump for their respective stock markets early Monday. In Portugal, a Constitutional Court ruled last week that planned cuts in wages and pensions for public employees were discriminatory. The Portuguese government will now have to seek alternative ways to cut spending to keep the country's EUR78 billion ($101 billion) bailout program on track. Greece's ASE Composite dropped 1.6% and Eurobank Ergasias and National Bank of Greece slumped after Greece suspended their merger following objections from international lenders, who said the combined entity could become too big and pose a systemic risk to the country. Elsewhere, European stock markets were largely higher, bouncing from the two-month lows seen last week after the disappointing U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. The focus will now shift to the start of the first-quarter U.S. earnings season. In line with tradition, aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. is the first to kick off proceedings later Monday. German industrial production data are expected at 1000 GMT.

German Industrial Production m/m 0.5% 0.4% 0.0%

It's a sayonara to the GBP/JPY longs this last hour. It's been fun, but all good things must come to an end.

strange ..... dow continues south but even cash ftse has not followed it - yet

Reckon the DOW has some catching up to do Cynic: the FTSE and other European Indices tanked on Friday, whereas the DOW recovered much of what it had lost - that's my theory anyway.

"

Thanks for that Skinny :)

GBP BRC Retail Sales Monitor y/y 1.9% previous 2.7%

GBP RICS House Price Balance -1% -5% -7%

Cold weather slows UK retail sales growth in March - BRC

LONDON | Tue Apr 9, 2013 12:18am BST

(Reuters) - Growth in British retail sales slowed last month despite a boost from an early Easter, as unseasonably cold weather hurt demand for summer clothes and shoes, industry data showed on Tuesday.

The British Retail Consortium said retail sales values rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier on a like-for-like measure, which strips out changes in stores' floor space and is favoured by equity analysts. That compared with a 2.7 percent increase in February.

EUR German Trade Balance 17.1B 16.2B 15.6B

JPY Prelim Machine Tool Orders y/y -21.6% previous -21.5%

EUR French Gov Budget Balance -27.1B previous -12.8B

EUR French Trade Balance -6.0B -5.3B -5.7B

What a surge on the DOW last night - seems to have started going up just after I went out late afternoon... Ah well, my shorts are still there, having not been stopped out, so I shall have to think what to do next.

I got filled last night (short) @6,316, which I'm going to leave for now.