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

6594.8 gone short, 6604 seams to hold some resistance I wonder what this afternoon numbers will bring, an in crease in the claimant count I hope.

IHS as highlighted yesterday.

US adds 214,000 jobs in October, unemployment at 5.8%
US payrolls expanded by 214,000 jobs last month, as economic activity remained robust and employers added to their workforces, the Labor Department said on Friday in its monthly snapshot of the labour market.
That gain compared with a revised 256,000 in September, which was revised up from a first reading of 248,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 per cent from 5.9 per cent a month earlier.


it seems the pundits were looking for 233,000 new jobs, but market looks undecided as to whether the actuality is good, bad or indifferent

DOW
17600, which is where the index is now challenging OUGHT to be a pretty good place to short, though recently gravity has been defied heavily (a nice oxymoron!)

DOW
17600 proving to be something of a battleground in both directions

At 8:30 a.m. ET, the U.S. Census Bureau will report October retail sales figures.

guess that might set the trend for the day
no idea what is expected

whatever it was and is, it looks like something of a damp squib with cash dow moving barely 10 points higher

Take your pick!

"StockMarketWire.com
US import prices fall,
US core retail sales up."

No one posting as nothing really moving, now what does that tell you about the people that post here??

dow has been unusually quiet .... it's moved in a range of about 30 points since this morning

Conversely, nothing really moving and a certain other thread prolific with it's posts. What does that tell you about the people that post there? ;o)

IHS completed.

HARRYCAT - I think you can tell that they like the sound of their own voices!!

6701 gone short

6683 position closed +18

Short Dow at 17, 670 and UKX at 6,690.

6700.5 short again

6655 closed +45

Looking oversold right now, quite a channel of support at the current level so may just be testing support pending a move higher.

surely dow's direction is likely to influence heavily