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

m4 jnct 15 is surely swindon/marlborough ...... or did you mean m5?

sorry yes m5.,.

shorting Twitter yesterday really should have been a no-brainer, had i had one ..... it is common knowledge that joe public has very much fallen out of love with this particular social medium, and indeed with that format in general, for all sorts of onvious and well-publicised reasons

I wish it would all go away Twitter, Facebook ,it was a much happier world without it .

Never used any of them , never will .

nor have i, though i keep being pestered to join one or the other by assorted business contacts - i refuse

What makes me laugh is that people are surprised that you don't have a Facebook account, why do i want the world to know my business . "you can catch up with people from your past " they say , oh really ,if i don't see someone from years ago it's usually because i don't want to ! .

facebook twitter very suitable for lemmings.

Hmm - depends. I love Twitter. Friend of mine promotes his small business very successfully using social media, it all depends on what you use it for. If you want to see what I had for breakfast, then you're not going to be in luck!

how about after breakfast?

:-)

i've had quite a good day today, which sure makes a change of late, and i have already banked some juicy profits from dow and ftse longs
indeed, i'm wondering whether dow has now shot its load, so to speak, and if a short might not now work profitably for (at least) the rest of the evening

U.S. January Nonfarm Payrolls Due 8:30 a.m. ET; Seen +189K

came up short @ +113k

it's strange that dow has gone a bit stronger, having dumped on the announcement

following lower than expected jobs number less chance of a further reduction in QE

need to put a housebuilder in my pension
does anyone have a strong view between TW. BDEV, PSN or perhaps PAG?
any other fave?

yes TW.

PAG from the above but I'd also consider GFRD (Galliford Try) or RDI (Redifine)...

Redifine 6.15% yield
Galliford 3.18% yield
Paragon 1.92% yield
TW 0.87% yield
Barratt 0.76% yield
Persimmon 0% yield

Anatole Kaletsky ‏@Kaletsky 52m
While US payroll growth of 113,000 disappointed, household survey showed huge growth of 606,000 new jobs! May explain resilient markets.

have taken a few chips off the table ahead of the weekend.