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

I'm not too worried in that respect, Floss, Australian financial regulation is quite good and client funds are segregated at top-tier banks.

The point here is that there's probably going to be a fair bit of book re-writing today and over this weekend and both profits and losses may well be removed from trading books. Brokers don't want clients emptying their account balances in case they need to claw the money back.

Casualties already! :
"(Reuters) - Retail currency broker Alpari filed for insolvency on Friday after a majority of its customers sustained losses after the Swiss National Bank's decision on Thursday abandon the three-year old cap against the euro.

"The recent move on the Swiss franc caused by the Swiss National Bank's unexpected policy reversal of capping the Swiss franc against the euro has resulted in exceptional volatility and extreme lack of liquidity," Alpari said in a statement.

"This has resulted in the majority of clients sustaining losses which has exceeded their account equity. Where a client cannot cover this loss, it is passed on to us. This has forced Alpari (UK) Limited to confirm that it has entered into insolvency."

The SNB stunned markets by scrapping its three-year-old pledge to cap the value of the franc at 1.20 per euro. That sent the franc soaring over 40 percent against the euro at one point. EURCHF=R

Another player in the retail space, London-based interdealer broker IG Group, said on Thursday many clients were able to close out their Swiss franc positions with IG more swiftly than the broker itself managed to close out its hedged positions on the currency in the forex markets. It forecast it would take a hit of around 30 million pounds."

Hmm. I closed my Alpari account a few months ago. Sorry for those who still have accounts.

UPDATE 1-Asia FX brokers hit hard by Swiss franc shock, regulators probe

"The surprise move caused New Zealand foreign exchange dealer Global Brokers NZ Ltd to close due to hefty losses incurred from the volatility."

Too many brokers and not enough players. The industry needs a good cull.

Dow
sitting on my hands
with 17300 now looking to be broken significantly, further movement south is quite possible, somewhat contradicting ftse

what do i know!
glad i've sat on my hands, not least because i would not have been able to give my undivided, which could have been fatal

The Dax looks to have set a new all time high..

QE on its way in Europe possibly the catalyst for the Dax?

Definitely its being priced in yes. The whole block is up.

wowee!
slightly foolishly went (further) long dow at 17425 hoping to make a couple of shekels before close but it's now now zipped through 17500
now wondering whether to allow greed to have its head

=============

prudence rules yah!
banked nice profit at 17502 but still have another one running at 17630

Ftse 100 up on the week and the US Indices are down.

Cant recall that happening in recent memory.

Going to stick my neck out and go for more upside next week.

The FTSE 100 rose on Monday, despite a plunge in Chinese shares. Investors are hoping that the European Central Bank will launch a quantitative easing programme following its meeting on Thursday.

Chinese shares plunged, with the Shanghai Composite share index closing down 7.7% the largest one-day percentage fall in in more than six-and-a-half years. This followed a crackdown on margin trading, which has been blamed for fuelling a wave of speculation over the past few months. On Tuesday morning, China releases its GDOP figure for 2014. It is expected to report its slowest expansion in 24 years.

Infrastructure investment group John Laing unveiled plans to float that could see it valued at up to £1bn.

Any idea when the greek elections take place? No one seems to be too worried about the leftists getting in and trashing the austerity deal.....yet.

25th from memory. with the Euro at 1.30 GBP/EUR I'd say the election leftists and QE have already been priced in. If the ECB this week fails to announce any QE then we could see a quick return to 1.27's all to watch for.

Martin Luther King day so a holiday in the States..

As such the fall in Chinese markets won't be reflected today.

my brain's not functioning very well today so doing nothing, but from a very jolly start, all is now heading south and looking quite ugly

Manuel,

Where and when did you find it?

8-}

Look reasonable now.

But will be up early.

Sharecast -US stocks edged slightly higher on Tuesday, amid better-than-expected data from China and gains from Apple and Netflix.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 3.66 points up to 17,515.23, while the Nasdaq rose 29.07 points to 4,171.21 and the S&P 500 ended the day 3.13 points higher at 2,022.55.

China's gross domestic product rose 7.3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, more than the 7.2% growth that was expected.

However, it marked the slowest economic growth in 24 years, while the country's industrial production gained 8.3% year-on-year in December, compared to forecasts for a 8.2% increase.

difficult to impossible or what!!!???

DOW
between 14:30 and 14:40 it moved between a low of 17394 and a high of 17520!