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

Average price is 63.1p apparently!

Taxpayer-backed Lloyds share price jumps as it records £1.5bn profits

"After last week’s collapse of the sale of 632 branches to the Co-op, Lloyds said its planned flotation of the newly renamed TSB should take place “sometime in the middle of next year”. The Government still owns 39 per cent of Lloyds following its £20 billion bailout in 2009. Even with today’s 2p rise in the share price to 55.5p this is still well short of the Treasury’s average buying price of 63.1p."

Bow to your superior knowledge Skinny!

Google - not me! :-)

Lloyds launched a rights issue to raise capital from existing shareholders – as an existing 43.4% shareholder, the government chose to take part in this and thus maintained its shareholding at 43.4%.[36][37] Following this, the National Audit Office has calculated the government's average buying price for its entire stake in Lloyds as about 74p.[38]
Taken from Wikipedia don't know how reliable that is!

Ok so it's anybody's guess ie anywhere between 63 and 74p

Your return is very impressive Skinny. My wife uses a personal broker who returned 17.5%, which she's happy with.

GBP Nationwide HPI m/m -0.1% 0.3% 0.0%

GBP Manufacturing PMI 49.8 48.6 48.3

FTSE 100 +0.4% at 6455.26, nudging higher after the release of better-than-expected UK data. UK PMI manufacturing figures for April come in at 49.8, an improvement on the previous month and better than forecast. Newedge says the data is good news for the UK economy as manufacturing production remained relatively weak in 1Q and some improvement is needed to maintain the recent uptrend in GDP. Reed Elsevier is off 0.5% after a broker upgrade. BP rises 1.4%, adding to Tuesday's gains after reporting 1Q results. Later, attention will be on US data in the form of ADP employment numbers and ISM manufacturing data at 1215 GMT and 1400 GMT, respectively.

Now ploughing through the indices (FTSE250) atm, looking for bargains for my redeemed cash ISA money. Amazing how many stocks are currently showing very skinny PEG figures and many are hugely into a minus figure. Lots of div yields in the 3-4% category, but many Co's have what appear to be ok PE's, but awful PEG's. Onwards & upwards!

Harry - less of the 'skinny' - post any you think of interest please :-)

Just been limited out of FTSE @6,472 for +52 - any views Shortie?

If your short 6486 should be the stop loss I think. I'm rather exposed to the DOW and DAX currently so not trading FTSE.

Thanks Shortie - I'm not in - I was long from 6,420 with a limit sell @6,472 (which has been filled) now watching and undecided.

London Stocks Push Higher In Quiet Trade 1114 GMT [Dow Jones] FTSE 100 up, extending gains in quiet trade, with the major European markets closed for May Day. Most mining stocks are in the black despite a drop in China's manufacturing PMI in April; Randgold Resources +3.7%, Antofagasta +2.2%. With no more UK data due and nothing going on in Europe, eyes turn to the US with ADP employment at 1215 GMT and ISM manufacturing at 1400 GMT. The FOMC rate announcement after the London close will also be in focus. From a technical perspective, Bill McNamara at Charles Stanley says key resistance is still at 6529, while short-term support is likely to be found around 6385.

ADP Non-Farm Employment Change 119K 154K 158K

i am not yet of a mind to short either ftse or dow and am now neutral in both .... however, those indices are worth watching carefully - especially ftse methinks - for the tide to turn negative

Whilst looking at gold, worth a read if your trading.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2013/05/01/1482892/gold-as-collateral-not-stock/