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

Some big moves in the US - twatter, SSYS & DDD were down 8%.

Apple currently up - they report after hours I believe.

UKX:

Bit of sideways action after today, maybe try the lower Bollinger Band (20,2), before heading down again to below 6500?

Closed for +20 - should fly now.

U.S. earnings not strong enough to halt world sell-off

(Reuters) - Emerging market equities posted their largest drop in five months on Monday to lead a global stocks sell-off, while Wall Street pared early gains as sentiment continued to sour.

Concerns about China's economic slowdown and its shadow banking sector, combined with expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will scale back its bond buying further, have put pressure on emerging markets dependent on external financing.

Also worth noting Japan reports record annual trade deficit

weak yen?

6545 gone short

11:51 EST - If Argentina were to devalue its currency, Citigroup (C) could suffer losses, say analysts at KBW. As of the third quarter, Citi's Argentine subsidiary had $4.2B in assets and equity was $749M, says the firm. If Citi were to write off the entire net investment in its Argentine subsidiary from 3Q13, that would be an impact of 17 cents a share, or 12 cents when giving the firm credit for its foreign currency forwards, says KBW. C down 0.8% at $48.94.

is this likely to happen?

Happened before>> Have a look on Wikipedia

but would this have a material impact on Citi, we think not but the knock on effect might prove interesting?

6528 position closed

talk about aotfs!
so suddenly dow is +20 instead of -100 at one point

talk about aotfs!
so suddenly dow is +20 instead of -100 at one point

Well done Shortie - I've had another +25 the other way - a strange concept recently!

Easy eh!

GDP up 0.7% in last quarter

FTSE tight range so far. Tempted to increase my stakes..

not sure what suddenly spooked cash dow, but it dropped about 70 points in a blink .... perhaps it's just early morning trading starting across the pond, and they didn't like AAPL or something silly

any ideas anyone?

Durable goods figures.