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

Cynic, I feel particulary tired and unimpressed with the fact I gave to go and get a cocktail of jabs after work tonight for a business trip in 2 weeks to The Gambia.. No rest for the wicked, as tomorrow I'll spend the day being worn out by my 5 year old son. Sunday I might get some peice but I'm not counting on it as the wife has no doubt made plans...

GBP/JPY has dropped by 300 pips this morning! I've taken a small number of them but as I'm working as well I set targets so tend to miss the big moves. Shame, but that's life.

i'm sure there are far worse places to go on biz than The Gambia ...... cocoa futures?

anyway, i can smile, as my children have all flown the nest and are gainfully employed :-)

Its the jabs I don't like, this time of year it'll be hot and sunny in The Gambia.. hotel accounts I'm afraid, nothing exciting..

One to keep an eye on this afternoon, could well be about to break lower again.

5 iPhone-beating phone features

How some Android and Windows models are one-upping Apple.

The iPhone continues to dominate the market for high-end smartphones, but a growing army of competitors, mostly Android models, now boast some features that make even the most ardent Apple AAPL -0.48% devotees envious.

for myself, i can't work out where the markets will go this afternoon ..... i'ld like to think that they'ld recover, but probably for the best, i can't convince myself

tgif!

Poets day. P Off Early Tomorrow is Saturday.

9:19 EST - Based on how market reacted, a bad payrolls report isn't believed to be enough to stop the Fed from tapering QE next week. The question now is if financial tensions are. ED&F Man Capital's Tom di Galoma thinks there's a chance, noting Yellen "is very careful about disruptions." The coming FOMC meeting is Bernanke's last as chairman. Recall in September's surprising no-taper decision, a key reason cited by the Fed was a sharp rise in interest rates. This time, it's stocks and a whole slate of currencies selling off. While the bar is high for the Fed to deviate from its gradual-taper course, it's worth remembering how stress in financial markets have a place in the Fed's equation.

look or rather hope for some support for dow at ~16020

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modest dow long at 16090
i smell dinner at the Waterside :-) ..... but a way to go yet, remembering the size of the last bill!

Strong dollar with emerging markets being sold off... I'd assume that profit taking on fx is causing the sell off, either that or its fear of default as emerging market bubbles near the burst... Short indicies and markets long gold and anything unimpaired always resemble the begining of a crash...

Well weve got that pull back youve been looking for before since xmas Cyners.

Its a case of where it stops now.

Shortie - from earlier - Emerging currency panic forces central bank action

(Reuters) - Central banks across the developing world waded into currency markets on Friday to try and stabilise currencies that were rapidly depreciating in an emerging markets selloff.

The Turkish lira hit record lows despite an estimated $3 billion (1 billion pounds) of intervention during the previous session. The rouble and the rand languished at levels not seen since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

"It's a general weakness in those emerging market currencies - rouble, rand, lira - where the market has a view that the central bank will not act properly on market weakness," said Ulrich

if i knew that sticky, i wouldn't be sitting in uk, but rather in the sunshine of the windies or similar

What about Blackpool...... lovely fish and chips.

And full of thick northerners.

ooh thats not nice.,.

Is that bearish MACD divergence on your chart, Skinners? The price is still above the trendline though.