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

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.

I got filled @6,312 - watching and waiting!

Floss,

We're down to my lower line now. Time to bank for me now.

Shortie,

I've been confused all these years, having been told once that Ichimoku was a Japanese motorbike.