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

Decided to short GJ again

Fingers crossed for a repeat of what happened at around 05:00 this morning..

Cynic, regarding your earlier comment on Apple, I think this share lost so must ground because high levels of innovation had been priced into the stock prior to the iPhone5's release. We expected alot from Apple who delivered a device marginally better then the previous model, there was no real step up in the same sense that there was between the 3Gs and iPhone4. Where as Samsungs offerings have moved in leaps and bounds over it previous models allowing it to gain in market share.

Fingers crossed for a repeat

So far so good..

Looking good for you Shortie.

cynic - this may (or not) be of interest to you :-

Should I buy shares in Apple?


Why apple dipped below $400 and what to do now

that idea is broken!

Verizon Earnings Beat Estimates with Light Revenue

USD Unemployment Claims 352K 349K 346K

I'm trading GBP/JPY to the long side today, Shortie, on account of how I've had a red squiggly uppy on my hourlies since about 4am. :o)

You can buy cream for that! :-)

VOD RNS going down well!

I'm out of GJ for now Hilary, I don't fancy the long position at the moment.

USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index 1.3 2.7 2.0

USD CB Leading Index m/m -0.1% 0.1% 0.5%

thanks skinny; i'll have a look eventually but in fact i sold out of AAPL a good few weeks back and haven't been remotely tempted to throw more money in that direction

German PPI m/m -0.2% 0.1% -0.1%

Shortie,

Now you know why I was happy to trade GBP/JPY on the long side. :o)

EUR Current Account 16.3B 14.9B 14.8B

Italy centre-left backs ex-PM Prodi as presidential candidate

ROME | Fri Apr 19, 2013 9:21am BST

(Reuters) - Italy's centre-left backed former Prime Minister Romano Prodi as candidate for president on Friday, setting up a battle with the centre-right alliance of Silvio Berlusconi and increasing the likelihood of a snap election within weeks.

The election of the next head of state to succeed President Giorgio Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, is crucial to ending a two-month stalemate since a parliamentary poll in February which left no party able to form a government.

Do you invest (not trade) in US stocks skinny? Have been having a look at the divi yields on some of the bigger US companies and seems that they are a percent or two above the main UK contenders. Cigarettes, telcoms & pharma seem to be the top payers (much like the UK). Haven't yet looked further into the currency loss, which may presumably whittle down my divi yield. Research is ongoing!