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

Well done Skinny, 6646 retest??

Thanks Shortie.

Between there and 6655.8.

I'm still inclined to leave the smaller short running as the Ukraine is not looking any better.

Any other views?

i'ld be inclined to leave a short running purely on the back of dow weakening today ..... may be wise to close off same before dow close as aapl and fb numbers due after the bell

Well I don't expect FB would have narrowed losses, it's been on the acquisitions recently... As for Apple, I'd be surprised if they beat last years result.. More worth noting is Sterlings strength right now, as the BofE failed to raise interest rates when 7% unemployment was hit I'd expect the Pound to start to weaken.

Stuck around the pivot atm.

Yep, zzz, zzz, zzz.. Keep an eye on Drax tomorrow aswell..

6680 gone short

6680 closed @ 6673.8 for +6.2, think I'm done for the day.

1.67664 GBP/USD gone short

6680.3 FTSE gone short

I thought you'd gone home shortie.

just finishing up, couple of trades to carry over.

FTSE closed gain for +5.

Apple announces increase to stock buyback program, dividend. Will split stock. Earnings, sales also beat forecasts.
sp +7.55% after hours

Facebook profit triples on mobile growth
Facebook reported solid mobile advertising growth in its first-quarter results Wednesday.
sp +1.64% after hours

skinny earlier you said....." I haven't even looked at the TALK thread for months - it currently shows over 6900 unread posts.".................ends

where did you find this????

Im looking at it and its showing nil???

Admitedly it covers more than its fair share of politics(and arguments), but its up to the individual to set the agenda at anyone time on the thread re- subject.

Their are a big % of us on there that like politics, but that doesnt mean any other subject cannot be debated.

How about the demise of Man Utd GF?

Yes that aswel Chris which you already have started earlier this week and the thread stretched to another 7 posts, which just goes to show if theirs interest in your subject it will get debated.

Good point made.

GF - if you look at the thread list, it shows the status of each thread for you - so the NOWT thread (for me) shows Total posts 39888, unread 6988.

skinny it says under unread 3 now at the moment. can you explain further, cant see what you are meaning, cheers.