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

Shortie - I've seen the background info - I can't seem to find an obvious vehicle to trade it!

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The Chinese government has warned the U.S. that the government shutdown and prospect of Washington's first ever default were threatening the value of its U.S. investments.

In its first official reaction to the U.S. political stalemate over the budget and looming debt ceiling deadline later this month, Beijing said that "the clock is ticking" and urged politicians in Washington to "ensure the safety of the Chinese investments".

Flags of the United States and ChinaZhu Guangyao, vice-finance minister, said at a media briefing that "as the two largest economies in the world, China and the U.S. are inseparable."


The U.S. government shutdown has entered its seventh day with little sign of an immediate resolution. On Sunday, John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives declared it was "time for us to stand and fight" over the U.S. budget.

Mr Boehner's latest comments have unsettled investors with the S&P 500 expected to open lower on Monday, following falls in European and Asian stock markets.

Mr Zhu said China has made clear its unease with the political impasse in Washington with the U.S. administration.

"The U.S. has a large amount of direct investment in China and China has a vast number of U.S. Treasury bonds . . . The U.S. is clearly aware of China's concerns about the financial stalemate [in Washington] and China's request for the US to ensure the safety of Chinese investments."

China held $1.28tn in US treasuries in July 2013, according to U.S. Treasury data, although the true figure could well be higher than this since China also invests through intermediaries. Advisers to the People's Bank of China, the central bank, have been urging the authorities to diversify the holdings.

(Read more: Obama to Wall Street: This time be worried)

However, Raymond McDaniel, chief executive of Moody's, a credit-rating agency said he thought the U.S. would not default even if a no deal was struck to raise the debt ceiling before October 17, the U.S. Treasury's deadline for raising the $16.7tn borrowing limit.

"Hopefully it is unlikely that we go past October 17 and fail to raise the debt ceiling, but even if that does happen, then we think that the U.S. Treasury is still going to pay on those Treasury securities," he told CNBC on Sunday night.

Later this week, Li Keqiang, Chinese premier, embarks on a three-nation tour of southeast Asia. Coming just after Chinese president Xi Jinping's high-profile visit to Indonesia and U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to pull out of the APEC summit in Bali, Mr Li's tour of Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam will reinforce China's growing engagement with the region.

CNBC's John Harwood has the latest details on the standoff in Washington.Mr Zhu said that Mr Obama's absence from this week's summit was "something that all other parties didn't want to see [happen]".

"We hope that the US can draw lessons from history," Mr Zhu added, noting that a last-minute agreement over the debt ceiling in August 2011 still triggered a downgrade of America's triple A rating by Standard & Poor's.

"As the world's largest economy and an issuer of the world's major reserve currency, it is important that the US take credible steps to address its dispute over the debt ceiling in a timely fashion and avoid a default . . . We hope that the US economy will be able to overcome the grave challenges it now faces and put an end to such disputes so as to sustain the economic recovery process in the US and for that matter the process of global economic recovery."

Mr Boehner said the Republican majority in the House would not pass bills to fund the government or increase the debt ceiling unless the Obama administration was willing to make concessions on healthcare and other issues.

He insisted that "there are not the votes in the House to pass a clean CR [continuing resolution]", a reference to the short-term funding measure with no strings attached that would allow the government to reopen. Mr Boehner also said the debt ceiling would not be increased unless the White House addressed long-term spending and budget issues.

(Read more: Boehner Hews to Hard Line in Demanding Concessions From Obama)

"You've never seen a more dedicated group of people who are thoroughly concerned about the future of our country," Mr Boehner said of House Republicans on ABC television. "The nation's credit is at risk because of the administration's refusal to sit down and have a conversation."

Jack Lew, Treasury secretary, told CNN on Sunday, that Congress was "playing with fire". "If they don't extend the debt limit, we have a very, very short window of time before those scenarios start to be played out," he said, referring to possible cuts in social security and Medicare payments.

He told NBC that by October 17 the Treasury would only have $30bn left to pay its bills. "$30 billion is a dangerously low level of cash. And we're on the verge of going into a place we've never been, not having cash to pay our bills," Mr Lew said.

Stocks shrug off government shutdown so far

Adam Shell, USA TODAY 7:20 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013
The Wall Street history books were right. A government shutdown hasn't brought the stock market to its knees. In fact, the benchmark S&P 500-stock index is up 0.5% during the four-day shut down.
Four days into the shutdown, the S&P 500, Nasdaq and small-cap Russell 2000 are all sporting gains
Only the Dow Jones industrial average, down 0.4% during the shutdown, is in the red
Wall Street is betting that the shutdown will end soon and that a U.S. default will be averted


NEW YORK — The stock market history books were right. The 18th government shutdown has been a piece of cake for the resilient U.S. stock market.

When the government shutdown began Tuesday, the Wall Street marketing machine went into overdrive to reassure jittery investors that the first shutdown since 1996 wasn't going to slam the door shut on the bull market.

Investment strategists, economists and money managers rolled out reams of historical performance data that showed the stock market never runs into major trouble just because the government closes down for business for a few days, or even a few weeks.


Past government shutdowns have tended to be short-lived, with the average length being fewer than seven days. The negative impact on the economy and markets has also tended to be short in duration.

Four days into the current government shutdown, and despite additional fears of a government default later this month, Wall Street's reliance on past performance has been spot on, at least so far.

Through Day Four of the government shutdown, three of the four major U.S. stock indexes are actually showing gains for the period. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 is up 0.5%, topping the average gain of 0% during shutdowns dating back to 1981, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

The biggest loss during a government shutdown was 2.2% back in 1984. The biggest gain was 1.3% in November 1995, according to BofA.

The technology-dominated Nasdaq composite has risen 1% during the four-day shutdown, and the small-company Russell 2000 index is up 0.4%.

The only laggard is the Dow Jones industrial average, which has dipped 0.4%.

Wall Street is sticking with stocks mainly because the thinking is the economy won't take a major hit from the shutdown. But, more important, investors have basically ruled out Congress allowing the nation to default on its obligations. The consensus opinion on Wall Street is that the negative financial fallout from a default is simply too massive and too dangerous for Congress to let that happen.

As a result, they expect lawmakers to strike a deal in time to avoid major market disruptions.

For the year, the S&P 500 is up 18.5%, the Dow is 15% higher, and the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are both up more than 26%.

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Cable 15 minutes. The plum line is the one I referred to in post 13129.

Also, it's got a typo that I can't be bothered to correct. Target should read 1.6160, not 1.6060.

a comment from my chart chappy

There may be no sign of either the Democratic-led Senate or the Republican-led House blinking first in public, but there will be serious discussions taking place behind closed doors. A timely resolution to the debt negotiations would coincide with seasonal strength into the year-end, with plenty of time left for my upside target to be achieved by the New Year.

Recommendation: stay long. Target 16,175. Stop-losses can be activated on weakness below 14,350.

sooner or later, this circus will come full circle, to make a really bad pun ..... at that point, the market will jump 200 points (say) even if only as a kneejerk ... the question is how do you pre-judge when that might be?

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Hils - Thanks for the clarity! :-)

That was yesterday, Skinners. It stalled at 1.6120. I'm back on the short side today.

Please do try to keep up to speed.

:o)

:-)

Good run on GBP/USD so far, I'm cashing in before this springs back

Shortie,

Old resistance frequently turns into new support, and vice versa.

I suspect that, having initially stalled above the upper red line and then having broken it decisively on the weak data, it will probably now move on down to the lower red line.

I agree Hilary, think this may now go sideways for a bit though.

2 HR FTSE...

I'm actually long the FTSE for the 1st time in a while - a strange uneasy feeling!

Hils I have a cable S/R line at about 1.5960, next one about 1.5840 which ties in with the downtrend (don't have time to paste the chart), so waiting for a break of 5960.

I had a couple of long bets yesterday on the FTSE Skinny, got a little burnt with them.