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

At about 6614 I'll consider another short when the top of the range is hit.



The spread increases out of hours though!

GBP/USD 1HR

Yes - I know - but out of hours, comparing comapinies A & B quotes when you are short/long with A is quite obvious - I guess at the end of the day they are only bookies and can decide how they make the book.

DOW Daily


Sometimes out of hours numbers works to your advantage, other times they don't.

Shortie,

Your IT-Finance STC indi looks well dodgy to me. The plot certainly shouldn't look like that.

Shouldn't have included it on the above DOW daily.

depending on how quick on the trigger you are, for the dow is whizzing around all over the place, i'ld be very nervous (a) of being short and (b) of placing any stop position

my guess is that the time to short will be AFTER the vote, especially if there is some kind of resolution

maitate‏@maitate22m
ベイナーはよ仕事しろ、“@zerohedge: WHITE HOUSE REJECTS HOUSE REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL”

Peter Nicholas‏@PeterNicholas325m
White House opposes plan emerging from the House.
Calls proposal an attempt "to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans"

Retweeted by Wall Street Journal

well the market does not take much notice of that unsubstantiated nonsense
if there was any credibility to it, then the market would have plunged, whereas dow is not much moved at all - currently down just 23ish

Shortie,

I wasn't referring to the instruments - I was referring to the appearance of the plot.

Here's my 1 hour cable chart over the same sort of period to your chart in post 13249, with the indicator applied:



Spot the differences between our two charts. As well as the cycles starting and ending at different times, the plot is intended to be very clear in its direction as it is on my chart.

I've seen something very similar before, and it's as a result of the indicator coding logic being wrong.

Senators hopeful fiscal deal could pass on Wednesday
Reuters – 1 hour 9 minutes ago

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-senators-hint-possible-fiscal-004610080.html

I see your point Hilary, nothing smooth about my STC indicators. As an extension to MACD crosses though they work for me and my level of competence. Having said that I've never tried a more professional system.

Shortie,

The thing about STC is that it's a double-calculated indicator. I've seen a number of attempts at coding it for various platforms since the logic was put into the public domain about 5 or 6 years ago, and some of those attempts have been very wide of the mark in terms of what the indicator plot should look like. For some reason, the coders have failed to apply the double-calculation logic correctly.

Maybe I should complain, they might give me their MetaTrader4 software.

Skinny good call on your 6560 short yesterday

Thanks Shortie - I was tempted to add earlier - but didn't - now just watching.

One thing for sure - the perception of the Yanks overseas has been further tarnished.

MT4 is free from hundreds of places. I have the STC in MQL4 if you need it.

Thank you Hilary, I'll spend some time having a look http://docs.mql4.com/
I thought these system required your own programming which is something I've never done.

The US still in talks to re-open and avert a default is starting to make the markets nervous, but there are still no major moves in FX. Yesterday we had a strong USD as the US were talking and it was assumed that a resolution was on the way. This was followed by a weak USD as no decision was made and comments from the White House said we’re far from a deal.

Fitch upped the pressure on the US by stating that it would strip America of its AAA credit rating if they were to default.
Fed’s Fisher also made comments about QE this coming month and due to the Government shutdown and continuing talks on raising the debt limit he sees no QE cuts this month, and he is a very vocal Hawk.

Today’s data announcements start in the UK with the claimant count change and unemployment rate expected at -24.3k and 7.7%. If the data comes in as expected and with no US news until later, this could give cable a lift back above the 1.6000 level which it briefly broke yesterday.

Euro data is to follow with inflation expected to be at 1.1%. If there are no surprises, this may keep the euro subdued due to the outcome of the UK data and maybe a EUR/GBP trade due to uncertainty in the US.

ECB’s Draghi is talking later tonight. Not much is expected with the occasion but it is always worth a listen for any future developments and maybe a view of what is going on in the US and how it will affect the euro.