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

TOKYO--Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday that he sees the yen's current fall as part of a continuing correction from its excessive rise, and dismissed concerns that his recent bold easing action could trigger a massive capital flight out of Japan. In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires and other media a week after the BOJ launched an unprecedented plan to flood the economy with cash, Mr. Kuroda declined to comment directly on the yen's levels or on whether it will continue to weaken. But he was clearly pleased that the stock market has continued to rise and the yen is at its lowest level in nearly four years after the bank's plan was announced. "The markets are moving in an anticipated direction so far," Mr. Kuroda, a former financial diplomat well versed in dealing with the markets, said. The Nikkei Stock Average has surged since the meeting's results were announced last Thursday while the dollar has risen by more than seven yen to nearly Y100, a level not seen since April 2009. He said that "it's fair to say that the yen is still in a correction phase, given its excessive rise after the global financial crisis." "Generally speaking, currencies of countries whose central banks take easing actions tend to depreciate for the time being," he added. His remarks echoed those made by Finance Minister Taro Aso earlier this week, who said that he believed the yen was still in a correction phase from its long climb, suggesting that it has room to fall further. Reversing the yen's rise that has taken it to post-war record highs is considered crucial for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to jump-start the economy through a mix of an easy monetary policy, flexible spending and pro-growth strategies. A weakening of the yen has boosted stocks, helping to improve sentiment of households and firms and helped create some signs that the country's economy is emerging from a slump that has lasted for years. Some investors, including billionaire George Soros, have expressed concerns that the BOJ's radical steps may result in a free-fall for the yen, sparking a flight of capital by nervous investors to overseas markets. Even though Mr. Kuroda expects the latest measures to encourage banks and investors to shift some of their money to risk assets, he said that he doesn't expect to see any worrying outflow levels. "I don't think an avalanche of capital outflow will take place," he said. Under its new easing program, the BOJ decided to double the amount of money it will pump into the banking system and economy to Y270 trillion by the end of 2014, mainly through broad purchases of government bonds. It will also step up the amount of government bonds it buys to Y7.5 trillion per month from the previous Y3.8 trillion. That amount would mean that the central bank is purchasing about 70% of new government bonds that have been put on the market. That has already caused some hiccups in the Japanese government bond market where yields on the 10-year debt fell sharply on Friday to a record low of 0.315%, only to rebound almost immediately. The yield stood at 0.615% around 1100 GMT Wednesday. Traders say they have never seen such sudden volatility in the normally staid market. "Since the measures are considerably different and larger than previous steps, it will take some time for the market to digest them," Mr. Kuroda said. He also reaffirmed his stance that the central bank will not employ policy steps in an incremental fashion as previously practiced by the central bank, instead opting for a one-shot of "all measures necessary" to reach a 2% inflation rate in the next two years. "We aren't planning to take additional measures one after another," he said. But he also added that the bank will stay flexible. "I won't hesitate to make adjustments' if economic conditions warrant, he said. In order to buy such an enormous amount of government bonds, the BOJ decided to temporarily suspend its self-imposed bank note rule of limiting its JGB holdings to below the bank notes in circulation. Mr. Kuroda said the rule will be revived once an exit to its easy policy is in sight when the 2.0% price stability is achieved. "I'm not considering something special" to replace the rule during that period, he added. Mr. Kuroda said he was opposed to the idea of creating an employment mandate for the BOJ, as already exists for the Federal Reserve, saying that while employment and wages are factors they will consider, he did not see the need for a specific target. Mr. Kuroda said he does not expect the BOJ's radical policies to come under fire at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the G-20 industrial and emerging nations to be held in Washington later this month. Stressing that last week's easing stimulus meant to lift Japan out of over 15 years of deflation, not to intentionally guide the yen's value lower, Mr. Kuroda said "this objective is widely understood."

Closed my 6181 June for +ve. A brilliant week. It was great from Monday ..... For me.

Nice one Iain.

Well done, I'm rather amazed that the QE exit debate hasn't had a negative effect on Wall St.... The rally must be due to all the Yen finding its way into stocks!!

Wall St 1hr chart, looking rather overbought

I'm short @6,401.

I'm abit wary of the FTSE at the moment as its possible it could push up 100+ pips again.

1 HR FTSE

Shortie - you may well be right - my position is based on nothing :-)

FTSE still to regain it's 12 month high.

or perhaps the dai feh jai (big fat boy) may intervene!

To be honest, that's been at the back of my mind for a while and hence my previous post about wanting to be short overnight - so far proving costly :-)

I know costly, sometimes though you just have to bite the bullett and they come good..

Looks like I closed my FTSE long a tad too early, never mind - a good run nevertheless and my Gold got stopped out - also with a healthy profit.

Where now !!

just goes to show that markets don't always act as they are meant to! ...... took a bit of nasty bashing on the shorts i was running and now closed, but at least partially offset by my current long in HG+HC

I've just gone short on the DOW @ 14818. Had been long for a couple of brief trips on the FTSE and am leaving that alone for now.

Have gone short on FTSE at 6385 and long on gold at 1560

Bhunt - you do realise you are now betting the same way as me!

Do you want to reconsider? :-))

USD Federal Budget Balance -106.5B -110.3B -203.5B

Obama budget aims to kickstart deficit-reduction talks

WASHINGTON | Wed Apr 10, 2013 8:51pm BST

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama proposed a $3.77 trillion (2.46 trillion pounds) budget on Wednesday that combines controversial cuts to social safety net programs with tax increases on the wealthy.

The package is meant to lure Republicans to negotiate a broad deficit-reduction plan, but the details mirror a proposal Obama laid out last year that was rejected by Republican leaders.

maybe not my cleverest decision in the light of the cypress decision to sell gold - I had not seen that news before I placede my bet

Bhunt - it looks like limited damage so far!


Gold losses seen limited on Cyprus bullion sale plan

NEW YORK/LONDON | Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:25am BST

(Reuters) - Gold posted its biggest one-day drop in nearly 2 months on Wednesday after Cyprus was forced to sell most of its gold reserves, but analysts said strong bullion buying by other central banks should underpin the price of the metal.

Investor fears over more gold sales by other debt-stricken euro zone members such as Portugal and Greece sent spot bullion prices down 1.7 percent on Wednesday, within striking distance of a 10-month low.