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

British Retail Consortium, Toya.

Thanks for the heads up Toya - I wondered what had changed the sentiment with the FTSE starting to gain ground

UK SHOP PRICE INDEX MARCH 2008 - FOOD PRICE INFLATION SLOWS
April 9, 2008

Year-on-Year: The BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index (SPI) reports annual shop price inflation of 1.1% in March, marking a twelfth consecutive month of rising annual prices. During the last six months the retail market has experienced relatively steady inflation ranging from 1.0%-1.3% with March proving no exception.

Month-on-Month: On a month on month basis overall shop prices rose 0.2% in March, a relatively small reduction in comparison with February when prices increased 0.4% month-on-month. There was no reported growth in the price of food products from the previous month, the first time since August last year; however non-food prices increased 0.3% in March, slightly less than February (0.4%).

BoE rate announcement tomorrow, HBOS downgraded today, could well be a messey day for the banks...

indices have been pretty scary today, but if Dow manages to hold above current 12600, or even powers ahead during the rest of the evening, then that wuill be very jolly indeed.

meanwhile, my suggestion was looking oversold vs has so far proved to be correct .... whether or not today's recovery will prove more than a one day wonder remains to be seen

Just got back from Tenerife yesterday and have to say when working out prices, you tend to just shrug your shoulders and accept its not far off parity!!! i changed up some stirling before leaving and only got E120 for 100, certainly refrained from buying electricals, as it worked out more expensive than buying them here in Blighty...

Been out all day but left my short in place - damn and blast the FTSE looks like it dropped about 100 points at one stage - and I was not here to take advantage - never mind - will have to roll it over again . I guess I should have set a target at which to sell at - I keep on learning

very dangerous leaving indices running without monitoring ... suggest you have both stop and limit in place

I definitely had stops in place - but not limits - thanks for advice

Cynic, do you think euro/ rate was anticipating 50 point cut? It would be very lucky to be at the top of a huge reversal!

Bhunt, have watched it all day did not drop enough to take my long running short out, so if it's your long running short you couldn't have got out in credit. Did come very close though Maybe tomorrow:o)

UK Feb Construction Orders -5%, SVS now under 3 and looking overweight.. UK Feb GDP 0.5%.. ECB keeps rate at 4% Cynic I expect to see EUR strengthen further againt GBP

Thanks Maggie - just had myself a quick run on the dow and made some money - but came out too early - never mind - it cheered me up

Haven't tried the dow yet too scary

/
currencies go in cycles ..... i never predicted that would now strengthen in a straight line to say 1.45, but my own view, sahred by some but certainly not necessarily even the majority, is that is oversold and is overstrong ..... in this very brief window, i have proved right, but as they, "That am peanuts!" ..... unless things go badly wrong, i may well hold this position for some time .... or, as is my wont, try to be smart arse by taking a profit in the hope of buying again a bit cheaper

/Euro
I had thought the same as Explosive, and for the same reason. But Cynic did get it right yesterday, though the Euro has strengthened overnight. I wouldn't be surprised if it went back to 80p+

interesting to see whether or not i shall prove to be the smartarse and thus make your arse smart!

how do these indices work ? Appreciating the volitility that has occurred since ive been away for 4 weeks, but the FTSE is higher than when i left however the vast majority of my holdings including about another 30 on my watchlist appear to have fallen by more than 10% - 15%. Well if nothing else At least the snow was good

Have wondered about that myself sj everything seems to be falling but the Ftse is rising?

Miners