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

Looks like another test of support is immenent!

Skinny, well done getting 40 pts off the FTSE this morning.

Thanks - I opened the short late Friday as the US fell and we carried on climbing.

Nothing obvious atm for this afternoon, so perhaps a good time to enjoy the sunshine!

I think you might be right, although I'm stuck at work so no rest for me.

46644 shorting AAPL

FTSE sold +2.5pts..

46526 AAPL closed +118... Just goes to show patience and timing are everything..

6608 gone short FTSE

CPI figures shortly.

Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank expects UK CPI inflation to ease only slightly in July to 2.8% year on year. "CPI inflation likely passed its peak and our forecasts point to gradual decline towards 2.4% by the end of 2013," it says.

Europe’s biggest banks will have to cut €661 bln of assets and generate €47 bln of fresh capital over the next five years to comply with forthcoming regulations aimed at reducing the likelihood of another taxpayer funded bailout. The figures form part of an analysis by the UK’s Royal Bank of Scotland – which singles out Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole and Barclays as the banks most in need of fresh capital – highlighting that five years on since the financial crisis, Europe’s banks are still “too big to fail”. Overall, the region’s banks need to shed €3.2 tln in assets by 2018 to comply with Basel III regulations on capital and leverage, according to RBS. The burden is greatest on smaller banks, which need to shed €2.6 tln from their balance sheets, raising fears that lending to the region’s small and medium size enterprises will be sharply reduced as a result – FT.

Vince Cable is looking at imposing a levy on businesses who fail to pay their suppliers promptly, after a Whitehall push to cajole companies into improving their behaviour voluntarily failed to make enough impact. The business secretary has ordered his officials to look at whether Britain should introduce a fine for late payments as he prepares for an autumn offensive on the issue. The threat of government intervention comes after months of pressure by Whitehall to get businesses to sign up to the government’s voluntary prompt payment code – FT.

Vince Cable is looking at imposing a levy on businesses who fail to pay their suppliers promptly
and just how does he think that will work if you want to remain a supplier?
a number of the major players will impose THEIR terms of payment on any potential or actual supplier, and it is not unknown for that to be 120 days or more after the goods have been supplied and invoiced

cynic as usual Vince was looking for a popular headline, why do we have a business secretary that lives in "cloud cuckoo" land?

I fully agree Cynic, I was rather surprised by the article, doesn't Vince Cable realise that under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act business owners can already charge interest for late payments. If he introduces a fine then how will this run with the current Act in place.....

http://www.promptpaymentcode.org.uk/ It all stems from this waste of a domain which should be covered already with a commercial agreement. It's times like this I'm glad I don't waste my cash on ICM subscription.

Also - people in glass houses..........

6587 ftse closed +21 pts

Well done Shortie - I was waiting for 6,624.

Tomorrow is ex divi day!

Sold too soon

Have you got a buy point in mind?

Its in a 150 point range at the moment 6520 to 6670 trending down. The 1hr below sums up my ideas.