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

Ford figures were amazingly good, but the sp fell on the logic that future figures from Ford couldn't be any better.
Facebook figures are also amazingly good and the sp is up 13% with no hint of what the future could hold!
Defies logic!!!!!!

the only numbers that must have been dire were e-bay

all curious stuff

I'm pretty sure Amazon & Microsoft are reporting today, so just depends on whether they hit expectations or not.

Out for a bit so I will leave it in your capable hands chaps, if you could possibly wish the Dow up around +400 I will be very grateful, by for now.

Satya Nadella’s turnaround of Microsoft Corp. persisted in the fiscal second quarter, as more businesses bought cloud services and Internet-based tools like Azure and Office 365 from a company once mainly known for personal-computer software.
Revenue from Azure -- Microsoft’s platform that sells data-center based computing power and services -- more than doubled as customers signed up for pricier offerings that can handle machine learning and process large reams of information. Subscriptions for Office 365 productivity software also lured both businesses and consumers, and even Windows sales came in better than the overall PC market, fueled by the adoption of Windows 10.
The gains add to optimism that Chief Executive Officer Nadella can revitalize growth by focusing on Web-based services and productivity applications. More than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies are now using at least two different Microsoft cloud services, Nadella said on Thursday. His plan to focus on apps for rival platforms is also attracting users, with 340 million downloads of Office apps on Apple Inc.’s iOS and Google’s Android.
“They have two things going for them -- one, the belief that Nadella is driving innovation towards the cloud, and No. 2, Amy Hood has had a blowtorch out on expenses," said Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG, referring to Microsoft’s chief financial officer. “It’s a totally different vibe coming out of that place that it was three years ago."
Microsoft shares rose 4.2 percent in extended trading following the report, after closing at $52.06. The stock climbed 25 percent during the three months that ended in December on optimism about Nadella’s turnaround, compared with a 6.5 percent gain in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

DOW (cash)
stalling slightly at 16,230 but i think this will be overcome
not sure where after that ....... i have a long running currently, and it's doing very nicely and put in an arbitrary limit at 16,250 but may well raise it or change to a trailing stop

Am I reading the futures chart correctly chaps, Dow currently up 125ish pts ?

FTSE
has struggled back up to 6,000 but quite impirtant that it holds or even manages to build on this

much the same could be said about DOW at 16,200 which is now proving a bit of a problem

Leaving the screen for a while but hope to be back before the close, I will leave things in your capable hands -):

DOW
just stopped out (limit up) at 16,250 while i was busy with other stuff
anyway, really shouldn't complain and indeed i won't :-)

Out with the goods, thank you Jonsie and co.. thank you so very very much.

Broke above 6000 Fingers crossed it holds for a week or two.

i'm told it's 6020 which holds the key for further progress
it's currently above that level, so fingers x'ed that it holds into the close and that there are no nasty shocks over w/e

DOW
quite tempted to short if 16,300 is hit but not sure there is enough easy downside

Well it's up 260 ish atm @16330
2517

16400 if we get there might be a reasonable shout for a pull back

well you just have

No more trades today. Will probably look to short to FTSE 100 monday if opportunity arises. But the trend has changed with shorts being squeezed hard as I thought on Monday,

market is almost too difficult to call

Time to reflect to reflect on the week. From my rose tinted glasses view, I reckon we will see more upside this week. Looking for a pullback then trade higher. Dow at 16450 has still a bit of catching up to do for fair value.