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

The U.S. economic outlook would have to take a distinctive turn for the worse before the Federal Reserve considers halting its ongoing reduction of bond purchases, Chairwoman Janet Yellen said Tuesday. "I think what would cause the committee to consider a pause is a notable change in the outlook," Ms. Yellen told lawmakers. Asked about January's weak employment report, Ms. Yellen emphasized that the Fed would look at the long-term pattern and consider a wide range of indicators. "I was surprised that the jobs reports in December and January, the pace of job creation, was running under what I had anticipated. But we have to be very careful not to jump to conclusions in interpreting what those reports mean," Ms. Yellen said. Recent bad weather may have been a drag on economic activity, she added, saying it would take some time to get a true sense of the underlying trend. Ms. Yellen said in her testimony that if the data continue to come in as expected, the Fed will keep reducing the pace of its bond purchases in measured steps. It has lowered the amount it is buying by $10 billion each month to a current $65 billion.

6674.8 gone short

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Anyone know the epic for the Dax please, assuming MAM charts include it?

I didn't think MAM covered non UK Chris

CC,

Try DEX. and take note of the full stop, otherwise you'll get something else.

Cover the Dow Shortie INDU? But your probably right about the Dax.

Spot on Hils Thanks.

Short FTSE.

On edit - must keep up!

He just did, Skinners. :o)

:-)

What I actually came here to say was that MT4 users might like to note this.

I've been considering a course Hilary to get me into MT. Pretty time poor at the moment but if there's anything you could recommend then I'd be grateful.

Shortie,

I'm not really sure that I understand what you mean exactly by 'a course to get you into MetaTrader'.

If you're talking about using the client terminal, then its basic operation isn't too dissimilar to any other charting package. Its difference is that its a desktop application which you need to download and physically install on your machine, whereas much of the stuff you see nowadays tends to be Java-based and viewable in any browser.

The client terminal is free to download and use. Your broker pays MetaQuotes for a licence to use MT Server (which is what your client terminal connects to on the other end of the interweb), so there's nothing to stop you downloading a copy of the client terminal, setting up a demo account with a broker, and spending a bit of time familiarising yourself with opening chart windows, adding indicators to charts and figuring what buttons you need to click to open trades and adjust your SLs. Inside the terminal you'll see a Help tab from where you can download a user manual. I don't know what it says though, because I've never looked at it. Fwiw, I believe it's best to go as far as you can with any new software without looking at the manual, and then open it only once you get stuck - you're more likely to learn faster that way.

If you're looking to open a live account, then you really should be looking at a raw spread ECN broker rather than a Mickey Mouse bucket shop with fixed spreads. I won't go into detail and explain why here, but there are very valid reasons for this which I'll be happy to explain another time if you're interested.

Going back to your question about a course, the only thing I can imagine is that you're referring to understanding MetaQuotes Language which is the coding language for writing your own scripts, indicators and EAs. If so, then you almost certainly don't need to worry about that at this stage, and I'd only consider looking into it further once you've played with the client terminal for a bit and feel that it's something you want to make use of. That said, it's quite important to understand how scripts, indicators and EAs differ from each other and also where they reside on your machine and how to attach them to a chart window. But you don't need to know MQL to do that.

Also, I'd look at cTrader and LMAX. Try sticking them into Google if you've never heard of them.

Shortie.........here try this...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12P7aaZBXJU&feature=youtu.be&a

Anyone thinking Indeces going for a blow off top before plunging?

I think ultimately higher.