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

hope bhunt is not long on gold.,.

That's why I posted the article, help insure all info to hand... Thanks Skinny for the chart..

Cyners... can't imagine Toya being old and wrinkly, in my mind she's a curvacious brunette with legs that go right up to her...... bu**er wife's coming.,.

Anybody using MT4 with EA's that call dll files should be aware of this.

http://forexmagnates.com/3rd-party-developer-gets-red-card-as-metaquotes-re-acts/

Hi John,

I think that the Forex Magnates article is probably scare-mongering unnecessarily.

When a trading EA calls a function from a DLL, the purpose is generally two-fold. Firstly, the DLL is likely to 'call home' to the EA developer's own server to validate the licence. It's a common anti-piracy measure used by many software developers in all fields. Secondly, the DLL is likely to contain part (if not all) of the trading logic as a further counter-piracy measure. The fact is that MetaQuotes EX4 files can be easily decompiled back to readable source, whereas it's not so easy to extract the contents of a DLL written in C++ and packed in Themida.

None of the above involves any modification of the MT4 Client Terminal in any way whatsoever.

What MetaQuotes have got the raving hump about is third party developers who have decompiled the packed MT4 Client Terminal code and physically altered it in some way to allow their products to run. If you look at the screenshot in the Forex Magnates article, you will see some rather unusual looking chart windows. These can only be obtained by hacking into and modifying the MT4 Client Terminal source codes.

So, in essence, MetaQuotes are really just protecting their own intellectual property which, imo, is fair enough. So long as an EA vendor doesn't go hacking into the Client Terminal, he won't be breaching any licence terms, and an EA's standard DLL calls certainly don't fall into that realm.

The people who are affected by this are the brokers themselves who have adapted the Client Terminal to enhance their own product. Since last autumn, retail Forex has become problematic to the extent that I wouldn't be surprised to see a few brokers go t!its up over the next 18 months. Too many brokers with insufficient traders to go around means that brokers are now having to go that extra mile to keep track with churn. Vantage FX, IBFX, IronFX and Tradenext were all using a third party add-on that MetaQuotes objected to. Here's a transcript of an email I received yesterday:

Update on IronFX MT4 Advanced

Dear Valued Client,


Please be informed that further to the decision of MetaQuotes to block any solutions by third party developers that attribute their systems and software on the platform, the IronFX MT4 Advanced will be not available from April 15, 2013.

It is expected that existing installations of the MT4 Client Terminal will function properly without the need to reinstall, and you will be able to continue trading normally through your existing advanced terminal.

Nevertheless, you are advised to stop using the advanced features in MT4 i.e. OCO Orders, Automated Closes, Trailing Stops and the Alarms immediately. In case you need to reinstall the IronFX MT4 and you have any Expert Advisors or Custom Indicators installed on the IronFX MT4 advanced that you need to move, please follow the procedure below or contact our 24/7 Customer Service for assistance.


Steps:

Go to C:/ folder on your computer
Select Program Files
Go to IronFX MetaTrader 4
Select Experts and Indicators
Drag and drop the Indicators or Expert folder to the Experts folder within IronFX MetaTrader 4

Restart the IronFX MT4 Client Terminal and any added indicators or EA’s will appear on the Navigator Window under the ‘Custom Indicators’ Tab.

IronFX remains committed at all times to provide you with all the necessary tools to enhance your trading experience and taking this as an opportunity, IronFX would like to inform you that an advanced version of web-trader with embedded social trading capabilities will be launched shortly.

Don’t forget that you can still enjoy “One Click Trading” function (Right Click on any chart and choose “ One Click Trading” function).


The other thing that amused me about the article was that MetaQuotes are referred to as a Cypriot firm. When I was a little girl, their head office was in Moscow. :o)

Hils, many thanks for that welcome clarification, whenever I get an email addressing me as "Dear Valued Client" my brain is immediately switched into maximum cynicism mode. :>)

Aaah Balerboy - I'm just catching up briefly: thanks for your lovely image of me! I much prefer it to the one Cynic describes :0)

CNY GDP q/y 7.7% 8.0% 7.9%

CNY Fixed Asset Investment ytd/y 20.9% 21.3% 21.2%

CNY Industrial Production y/y 8.9% 10.1% 9.9%

CNY Retail Sales y/y 12.6% 12.5% 12.3%

JPY Revised Industrial Production m/m 0.6% -0.1% -0.1%


China first-quarter GDP growth slips to 7.7 percent year-on-year

BEIJING | Mon Apr 15, 2013 5:13am BST
(Reuters) - China's economic recovery unexpectedly stumbled in the first three months of 2013 as the annual rate of growth eased back to 7.7 percent from the 7.9 percent pace set in the final quarter of last year, official data showed on Monday.

The growth rate, announced by the National Bureau of Statistics, was weaker than a Reuters poll consensus forecast for an 8.0 percent expansion.

Many investors had anticipated a possible surprise on the upside, with growth faster than the consensus, after a surge in liquidity in the economy during the first quarter and an uptick in export growth.

escape from alacatraz .... daren't say why lest i be accused of trading after the event :-)

EUR Trade Balance 12.0B 9.9B 8.7B

I'm not sure if anyone else is playing - long FTSE @6,308.

i'm playing, but more like short leg than long on!

Not playing FTSE Skinny, I'm shorting GBP/JPY still from last week, have three shorts on Wall St and am shorting EUR/GBP still also..

USD Empire State Manufacturing Index 3.1 7.2 9.2

Speaks @2pm.

USD NAHB Housing Market Index 42 45 44

gold - some very clever chaps will have made an absolute mint by being short, while other of course, will have lost their shirts or even their houses ..... unbelievable!

Just closed +38.