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

Eyes down @6 tonight!

TD's Richard Gilhooly points out that one leg of the Treasurys market is doing more than pricing in delayed QE tapering -- it's hinting that perhaps more stimulus is coming. Yield gap between 10- and 30-year Treasurys has topped its 200-day moving average for the first time since May 22, he says, coincidentally the day a set of FOMC minutes sparked all the taper talk. And with the gap even wider today at 113 bps, it has more than reversed this summer's tapering expectations. "The curve move in recent days is now signalling something different," he says. It "resembles more a ramping up of expectations more akin to the August-November 2010 phase ahead of QE2."

if expectations are being or have been ramped, then a tumble on the news is even more likely .... perhaps buy on the news for a change; i'll try to watch but i'll be in a car en route for london at the critical time (dow currently down 32)

.

I felt a bump in the Force. :)

Nearlly all sectors on FTSE down but MINING on verge of a breakout??????????????

Gone long with a very tight stop.

miners have been in the doldrums for far too long, but with world economies improving nicely, the demand for commodities will inevitably rise

that why i bought into RIO about 10 days ago

I'm still unconvinced that world economies are improving. World governments might be massaging the figures with austerity, super low interest rates and increased money supply but this doesn't constitute an improving economy.

be as unconvinced as you like, but here at the sharp end (moving chemicals and gases) the signs are loud and clear

Dont forget shortie the market factors in 6 to 9 months down the road.

from our perspective, i just look at the volume of biz we are doing ...... if companies are shipping chemicals, then the clear implication is that stocks are now depleted

Sounds like a snippet from the Syria thread!

The problem when considering growth is that you also need to take into consideration debt. Both public and private debt levels remain unsustainable so where does that leave growth. I'd agree that commodities should improve as they are unimpaired as Jim Rogers has preached for the last decade. This commodities rally though doesn't necessarily mean that world economies will also improve, it does however mean that inflation will outpace growth as something we're already seeing.

shortie - read what i have written, not what you want to have been written :-)

Cynic I take it your in this little boom then http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/01/tankers-chemicals-idUSL4N0HR32G20131101

not exactly, but similar
we lease tank-containers for liquid chemicals and gases
their format is like those for dry freight boxes - for sure you've seen those on the back of trucks etc - but it's like a road-barrel within the same 20' x 8' x 8'6" framework

Certainly things are better than a year ago guys but you couldnt call this a convincing world recovery and it it sustainable?. Like Ive always said TA is trade what U see not what U think.

ps, CYNERS sgp RESULTS ON THE 7TH wed.


pps, to hold or not to hold?. I think they will be top notch results but this market is vicious at the moment on results. Think Ill hold on results day and play it from their.

SPG - i'll prob hold all until after the results ..... market is suddenly getting quite keen again

RECOVERY - i'm telling you what i see and have done for a number of months; confess i feel rather like cassandra (no, not from fools and horses!)

A bit more on my mining sector breakout.

Banks and Mining usualy go hand and hand together on wether we have economic growth and a recovery.

Chart for banks is far less convincing than the Miners chart but it looks like we are at a place where we have higher lows and lower highs and anytime now a breakout one way or the other. See below.........

that banking chart is not at all pretty .....