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

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!

I do deal in US/foreign stocks to a limited extent, I recently bought a Canadian stock TSX:ATP for the recovery potential and additionally, it yields @8%. It seems to have been very volatile is the short term that I've owned it.



My best trade was CREE which I held in 2010.



You have to consider currency fluctuations and the fact that they are slightly harder to research.

Thanks. Hadn't even considered canadian stocks, though have briefly looked at the french market, just as Peugeot fell out of the CAC40! Some of the data on the US websites seems to be a bit suspect to me as far as divi yields is concerned. Almost too much info out there!

Overall, I feel happier 'trading' the likes of APPLe etc via S/B.

CAD Core CPI m/m 0.2% 0.2% 0.8%

CAD CPI m/m 0.2% 0.3% 1.2%

CAD Wholesale Sales m/m 0.0% 0.4% 0.3%

Hi Hilary, well done on the GJ long, been out since yesterday so didn't get caught short on it. I did however take a loss on GBP/CHF this morning after it jumped, still not sure why..

Well the SNB are prone to intervention in an attempt to weaken the franc as they safeguard the euro 1.20 peg. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have their finger on the button this morning.

Also, there's a rumour doing the rounds re Verizon and Vodafone. Sterling's strong today off the back of associated m+a flows.

I'm still on the Vodafone debate as to sell equity, have these in the ISA bought for yield but now also showing a nice equity profit. Think I'll stay away from CHF for a while, back to the Euro then.

I'm also tempted to short..

Shortie - VOD is one of my trading favourites - I wouldn't be out of it purely form the VZ angle atm.