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

Skinny - post 13301 I figure this trend will continue, note though September high outside the line as was the October low so I probally need to adjust the angle slightly. Fed tapering rumours I expect will cause a pull back.

The biggest risk to being short is a retest of 6660 roughly if it goes the other way.

Re tapering :- Analysis: Washington budget battle may delay Fed taper until 2014

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:14pm EDT
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve may have to wait until early next year before it sees sufficient strength in the U.S. economy to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, after a destructive Washington budget battle that may take a bite out of growth.

Gone Short...

closed for profit

don't know what has (at last) got NMX3720 excited, but it's certainly cheered me a lot ..... pity that i took fright and sold some at a thumping loss a couple of weeks back, but hey ho

Short @6,621.2

Non Farm Pay rolls in US next tuesday.

Keep this in mind.

By Vincent Cignarella One crisis has been averted, but another looms. While the eyes of the world have been on Washington, investors have all but forgotten a threat in Europe: any minute now, Germany's constitutional court could rule against the European Central Bank's bond-buying program. Last summer's announcement of the bond-buying program, called "Outright Monetary Transactions," and the subsequent message from ECB President Mario Draghi that the central bank would do "whatever it takes" to save the euro, are widely credited as the beginning of the end of the European financial crisis. Most experts say a reversal by the German court is unlikely, but traders need to be aware of the possibility. Like the threat of a U.S. default, a refutation of the bond-buying program would be devastating for the global economy and would wreak havoc on financial markets. The euro would go into free fall and European debt yields would climb to dizzying heights, tipping the euro zone back into crisis. And all this could happen even though the ECB hasn't ever made use of the OMT. The very existence of the program, in which the ECB is authorized to make purchases in the secondary market of bonds issued by its member countries, has increased investor confidence in the euro zone and its debts. A German court decision that throws the program in doubt could erase that confidence in a heartbeat. It is important to keep in mind that the German court has no legal authority over the ECB and can't restrict its actions, but it does have jurisdiction over Germany's parliament, and it can limit the German government's participation in either the OMT or the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the permanent firewall created to replace the two previous backstops, the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism. Funding for the ESM is capped at 700 billion euros (nearly $1 trillion). Germany is responsible for contributing about EUR190 billion by next April. That contribution is the maximum amount currently authorized by the German parliament. Part of the court's decision would hinge on whether the OMT will put the German taxpayer on the hook for more than parliament has agreed too. If so, the court could rule the OMT program is illegal and forbid the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, from participating in the program. That would mark an almost certain death for the OMT. To be sure, the majority of analysts believe the German court will allow the OMT to stand on the basis that EU treaty allows for purchases in the secondary bond market. They further argue that the court will preserve the program because it doesn't want to touch off the next financial crisis. I agree with the first point, but not the second. The court must follow strict constitutional law and cannot be swayed by concerns about the fallout from their decisions. Another possibility--and a way out of its dilemma--is the German court could pass the ball to the European Court of Justice based in Luxembourg. The European court is considered more likely to rule in the ECB's favor. Passing the decision to another court would buy time for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to muster support in parliament to increase the authorization if and when it would be needed. Her conservative parties fell short of a majority in elections held in September, and have entered into talks with the euro-friendly Social Democrats about forming a coalition. The most likely scenario is that the German court will allow the OMT to stand with some minor conditions that need to be approved by the parliament. Such a decision might harm the euro temporarily, but is far from the doomsday scenario that an outright rejection would bring. If the court allows the OMT to stand with minor tweaks, attention would quickly turn back to the U.S. debt crisis, which has only been temporarily resolved.

Bring it on, let's have some more bad news, markets would appear to like it and thrive on it :O)

Maybe worth a short.

NMX3720 rockin n rollin this morning, no doubt helped significantly by RB's figures

just banked a nice profit on my holding of the above ...... i think i'll prob tighten my stop on the other part and hope i have the discipline to stand by it

Pretty amazing run, hourly chart below shows very overbought.

Skinny any idea what the overnight dividend fee this week is?

I seem to be short @6,713!

On edit - Yes its 7.09 points.

Thanks Skinny, so thats £7.09 in the pound running short. Might have to buy Tullett Prebon I think.

I've closed some of the short, but I'm also long HSBA.

I'm going to run my shorts and just foot the dividend payment I think, Tullett Prebon will help, still debating HSBC and BAE longs to hedge..

Daily AAPL. looking overbought also.