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

Long USD/JPY again, rather hoping for a break of 102.70 which may take us all the way to 104. Which would be nice.

6731.5 gone short

LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Sterling fell against the dollar and the euro on Tuesday as investors trimmed bullish bets on the currency after Britain's first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth data fell short of expectations. GDP rose 0.8 percent in the first quarter, the Office for National Statistics said, picking up from 0.7 percent in the last three months of 2013. The year-on-year growth figure rose to 3.1 percent. A Reuters poll had forecast quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.9 percent and 3.2 percent in yearly terms. ECONGB Sterling fell to a day's low of $1.6792 GBP=D4 after the data from about $1.6839. The currency had hit a 4-1/2-year high of $1.6858 on Monday and was last trading flat at $1.6805. The euro rose 0.15 percent to trade at 82.54 pence EURGBP=D4 after the data, from 82.335 beforehand. "There were some expectations in the run up to the release that the number would be a good one, especially following the run of other positive UK economic data recently," UKForex corporate desk head Alex Edwards said. "Sterling/dollar at $1.68 has been providing solid support in the last week or so but this level has now been broken. It's unlikely that it will fall much below here in our view as the data only just missed expectations." Expectations that the Bank of England (BoE) may have to raise rates early next year were intact as reflected in sterling overnight interbank average rates. GBPOIS=ICAP Indeed, the view that the BoE will be the first major central bank to tighten monetary policy has seen the pound =GBP gain more than 10 percent against a basket of currencies since March last year. BoE Governor Mark Carney said in an interview published on Tuesday that the economic recovery was starting to broaden and there were early signs it would be sustainable. ID:nL9N0G601B The pound has also been buoyed by signs of merger activity that may require big companies to buy the currency. U.S. drugmaker Pfizer PFE.N confirmed on Monday it wanted to buy AstraZeneca AZN.L in a deal that could value its smaller British rival at more than $100 billion. ID:nL6N0NK194 Traders said the focus will now shift to euro zone inflation data and U.S GDP figures on Thursday and U.S. jobs data on Friday. The Federal Reserve policy setting committee starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday and is widely expected to trim its asset purchase programme. "Markets will want to also examine euro zone inflation data over the coming days as well as tomorrow's U.S. GDP and Fed updates before making big bets on currencies," said Nawaz Ali, market analyst Western Union.

I'm averaging 6736 on the FTSE accross 3 bets and Cable 1.67772 accross two bets.

Out of USD/JPY flat.

Awkward to trade right now also.

Indeed. Doldrums.

DOW & FTSE both positive YTD for the 1st time since early March.

Whats the divi on holding tonight's FTSE?

6.5 points.

i banked the profit on my ftse long earlier this afternoon (+42), and having seen the dow finishing off the top, i am inclined to think we could be in for a down day tomorrow, though i'm not throwing in money to back that

Well the FTSE is looking rather overbought to me, currently short, 4 bets averaging 6751.5. A fall back to 6750 wouldn't surprise me

you mean one whole point? :-)

That's just my phase 1. :-)

I went short this morning @ 6762.2 tad early perhaps stop 6930.0. That time of year again golf and bowls take priority.

only worry when bowels take priority :-)

Stay off the curry.,.

Just made one funnily enough!

So you may be late on parade tomorrow then? Andrex in the fridge overnight? ;o)

Myself and my son are quite hardened to them - I've used some chllies that are @100,000 on the scoville scale.