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

Out @51.

Well done skinny, I wonder which way hilarys indicators are pointing on GJ at the moment as I fancy a short position.

Typical - RSI turned up and off it goes.

On a very basic criteria of Div yield & F/cast div yield both being greater than 5.5%, EPS growth being a positive number & P/E & PEG being about right for the sector, only a few have pinged up:
HFD, IAP, LRD. (KCOM & UKCM almost qualify with slight -ve EPS growth figures, but meet other criteria). Not yet looked at NAV, gearing etc, but ignoring the EPS growth figure, there are a few others such as AML, BBY, CLLN, DLG, FGP, HSTN, POG, PHNX, SGRO, TLPR all high yielders).

Shorting the 225 overnight.

GBP Services PMI 52.9 52.5 52.4

UK service sector grows at fastest rate in eight months in April - PMI

(Reuters) - Britain's dominant services sector recorded its strongest growth since last summer's Olympics in April, a survey showed on Friday, adding to signs that the slow economic recovery may be gaining some traction.

The surprisingly robust reading will be a relief for the government, which has faced mounting criticism of the austerity programme it launched three years ago that has been hobbled by weak growth at home and around the world.

The Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 52.9 in April, its highest reading since August and the fourth consecutive monthly rise. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the index to stay at March's level of 52.4.

15min charts

US tanker plane 'crashes in Kyrgyzstan after take off'

-- Greenback weaker as traders ready for weak U.S. April jobs data, consensus is for +148,000 jobs -- Expectation is that a weaker number will be bad for the dollar and vice versa -- Euro boosted by ECB Nowotny's comments that markets had overinterpreted negative interest rate talk -- Sterling supported by better-than-expected U.K. services activity survey

USD Non-Farm Employment Change 165K 146K 88K

USD Unemployment Rate 7.5% 7.6% 7.6%

USD Average Hourly Earnings m/m 0.2% 0.2% 0.0%

Wow, great

DOW NEARING 15000!

We will have a sunny weekend after long cold and dark days.

Been out and appear to be short FTSE @6,535.

USD ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI 53.1 54.1 54.4

USD Factory Orders m/m -4.0% -2.8% 1.9%

Dow reaches 15000.

Double post due to charts.

The higher it rises the harder it'll fall. History tells us this, its just a waiting game..

How long does it take for institutions to decide about closing short positions?

Is it discussed within institution or is based on instant decision by an individual ?