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

can't comment .... can only tell you that Dow cash is currently +65 at 9870

here's the jobless guff ......

Unemployment claims slide
Initial filings for jobless benefits fall by 20,000 to 512,000 in latest week, less than forecast.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week, the government said Thursday, with a total figure that was below analysts' expectations.

There were 512,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Oct. 31, down 20,000 from a revised 532,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 522,000 new claims.

The government said 5,749,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Oct. 24, the most recent data available. That was down 68,000 from the preceding week's revised 5,817,000 claims.

Still the big ones to come tomorrow though:
"Payroll Outlook
Another 175,000 jobs were probably lost in the month of October and unemployment probably rose to a 26-year high of 9.9 percent, economists forecast before tomorrows Labor Department payrolls report. That compares with 263,000 jobs lost in September and would be the smallest drop since August 2008."

Dow currently roaring (again!) and showing at 9975 ..... short term target is now very close at 10025, at which point sit back and watch

Dow spiked to 10013 and even finished just above 10000, but after hours it has slipped back a bit to 9988 ..... keep watching!

cynic
do you mean 9998? i think you do. anyway hope this shows i pay attention to you;
regarding ftse i have 3 major fibonaccii levels that i am watching. all 3 are 50% long term retracement levels. being 5114, 5106, and 5015. i find it unusual that 3 such major levels should coincide.current price as i post is 5130.
as always just my opinion
regards
jkd

5190 looks to be the upper number to watch on FTSE, so not much further to go there either

From FT chat today:
"Non farm Friday. Gone are the days when these deserved little more than a cursory glance and certainly no comment. Given that all roads lead back to the capacity or otherwise of the US consumer to spend (and to do this, stay in his/her job), they command more attention than we'd ideally like to give them these days. But they drive a bit more than sentiment. We're loking for 135k in any case, consensus is at 175k. Let's see. elsewhere, we have the yield curve fattening like Christmas Turkey, and a market that has shifted en masse out of beta. Seems our 'buy the quality on these dips' call is about as consensus as we'd least hoped it would be, so perhaps we begin to see a year end squeeze and rotation back into the recently dumped risk names. Hard to tell, as what felt like a large scale pain trade end Oct is, according to our better informed colleagues on the general sales desk, continuing at a less aggressive pace this month. But the big move is broadly done. Gross has come in and our traders tell us that desks are running much tighter limits at the moment. Conditions forming perhaps for a squeeze?"

Unemployment rate appears to be the key. Over 10% which is why the market fell.

IMHO the next two weeks are going to be crucial. The market hopefully will hold and gain ground but I think there are conditions in the market similar to pre-credit crunch and capitualtion is not to be ruled out. If that does happen a whole lot of people will be caught out again unless you stay nimble.

Confidence is key I guess at the end of the day.

Strange thing is the market appears to be in limbo.

When the market rises then apart from the miners/oilies very few sp's go with it. Conversley, when it falls there is no mass exodus.

Imo these conditions can't last and there will have to be give one way or t'other i.e real buyers entering the market or everbody gets out.

We shall see!

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October and employers cut more jobs than forecast, underscoring why Federal Reserve policy makers say interest rates will remain near zero.

Payrolls fell by 190,000 workers last month, compared with a 175,000 drop anticipated by the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate gained from 9.8 percent in September and exceeded 10 percent for the first time since 1983.

Stock futures slid and Treasury notes gained on concern the emerging economic recovery will cool as American consumers retrench. Fed policy makers this week said the economy will probably remain weak for a time and reiterated a pledge to keep borrowing costs low for an extended period.

We will certainly have very bad payroll numbers in November and December, said Harm Bandholz, an economist at UniCredit Global Research in New York who accurately forecast the size of the drop in payrolls. We dont foresee businesses going on a hiring spree anytime soon.

see post 4578 ...... 5190 (ftse) now broken in style ..... have held off jumping in at least for the moment, just in case dow boils over later on

Hoping to get short entry @1100 on S&P stop 1105.
Tempted to go now at 1090..........

quite brave to bet against the impetus

Just a gut feeling hence tight stop.

We could be arriving at a stage like the oil spike 18 months ago but this time with gold, and I don't think that it will be a spike (as so to speak) : it will rocket and stay up there...an incredible rise in the value of the yellow stuff might be about to happen and not drop down the other side like we had with oil...you just cannot just keep on printing out money without gold rising as well...there is only a certain amount in the ground and it is getting more and more difficult to mine...so gold to rise and currencies to drop.....a few dollars rise a day might turn into $20 or $30 rise a day, possibly more !.

PS : check out the new forex on Money AM...fantastic !.

Thanks ..will do

rf
your post 4587
"there is only a certain amount in the ground and it is getting more and more difficult to mine"
sound familiar?
anyway i'm with you on this, long term, that is.
back to topic. i'm still a bear on the market long term. i havn't changed stance yet, i seem to be getting more used to these binoculars of mine as i actually turned my portfolio nett long in april which i reckon aint bad or too late (see my post 4234). especially since i was such a mega bear on the market.less so now. but still a bear.
i still don't believe this rally is sustainable for much longer, but still following it.
good luck to all
regards
jkd
edit; much longer being relative, in short/medium term, price appears to be setting up for a surge to higher levels. as always could be wrong and just my opinion.
i'm still a bear and still nett long.