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

11014

I'm short @ 11038 and UKX @ 5304
edit: whoops, I mean 11,138 and now covered anyway +36

Get some more posts on here and get rid of that ugly bird.

What this one.

bernard - was that a short punt long or a short punt short? ...... if the latter, i guess it was the wrong call, but as i have been out all day, it may have been possible to make a turn

anyway, what does everyone think the right call is for tomorrow and friday? ..... damned if i know

Must be the best of this bunch

you wouldn't want any of them to tighten their thighs too hard round your ears!

Philip (shut that door) Schofield looks scared.

She has lost the plot.

Lost it years ago the chav.

I thought she may be your sister Bernard. lol

DOW up 101 points

Could be your brother my son.

She looks more like a brother than a sister.

You would know.

With a little bit more QE, I would guess that the FTSE will remain positive for the next few days, until the greeks raise their heads again.
U.S. non-farm payrolls late tomorrow, but don't think they will be markedly negative.

Dow up over 600, or 5.7% since the low on the 4th Oct. We could see a little profit taking ...

what a classy woman - NOT - she looks absolutely horrible - horrid and those eyes - wonder what shes popping to make them look like that - her body is horrid - a load of muscle with false boob and various types of awful make up - is anything real about her - i feel sorry for her she is just a sad lost person

anyhows........dont agree with teh qe but done now... other stuff relevant..

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of protecting municipal debt against default is at the highest level since January even as past warning signals from derivative contracts proved unfounded.

Protection on $10 million of securities for 10 years cost as much as $245,000 this week, according to London-based data provider CMA. Thats the most since Jan. 7, three weeks after banking analyst Meredith Whitney predicted hundreds of billions of dollars of defaults in the coming year. Instead, failures plunged to $1.1 billion, a quarter of 2010s rate, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Prices of privately traded credit-default swap contracts have risen 78 percent since May 31 even after states closed a projected $32 billion in budget deficits, according to the Washington-based National Conference of State Legislatures. States and localities have also recorded seven straight quarters of year-over-year revenue growth, the U.S. Census Bureau said, while enjoying the longest stretch of rising income and falling interest rates since Bill Clintons presidency.

While states and cities are balancing budgets and slashing borrowing costs, investors are buying hedges against defaults on concern about a slowing global economy, said Peter Demirali, who manages $350 million of municipal debt at Cumberland Advisors in Mendham Township, New Jersey.

Revenues are increasing, Demirali said in a telephone interview. Theyre laying off workers and restructuring health and pension benefits. So the risk isnt really any higher, its just that risk around the globe has moved higher.

Economies Slow

U.S. gross domestic product growth may slow to 1.6 percent this year from 3 percent in 2010, while Europes expansion rate may cool to 1.7 percent from 1.8 percent, according to economists forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

A credit-default insurance contract based on the Markit MCDX credit-default swaps index reached a record of 340 basis points in December 2008, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings. While CDS prices were rising, yields on municipal bonds had already begun plummeting to the lowest levels in at least six years, according to Bloomberg Fair Value data. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Prices of the privately traded contracts next peaked on June 30, 2010, two weeks after 10-year muni yields began a 29 percent drop lasting through early September. The 2011 high for the CDS index was in January after Whitneys appearance on CBSs 60 Minutes on Dec. 19. By mid-February, municipal debt had started an eight-month rally that pushed interest rates to the lowest levels since 1967, when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

Default Drop

About 64 percent of municipal bankers, advisers and government officials expect the number of defaults to drop or remain the same this year compared with 2010, according to an RBC Capital Markets survey conducted at a Bond Buyer conference in Carlsbad, California last month.

Credit-default swap costs may not be a precise gauge of risk, said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for California Treasurer Bill Lockyer. The biggest borrower in the $2.9 trillion municipal market saw the price of protecting its debt for 10 years jump to 286 basis points yesterday from 247 basis points on Sept. 29, according to data from CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc.

Anyone who tried to divine the reasons for movement in municipal CDS prices is on a fools errand, Dresslar said in an e-mail. There is no rhyme or reason. Thats probably because the entire market has no basis in reality.

Ratio Increase

The rise in credit default swaps has accompanied an increase in the ratio of 10-year municipal yields to similarly maturing U.S. government-bond rates. The yields on tax-exempt debt have been at or above 100 percent of Treasuries for five straight weeks, the longest stretch since May 2009, according to Bloomberg data.

Still, investors in September added $1.9 billion to tax- exempt funds, the biggest monthly inflow since September 2010 when buyers added $2.6 billion, according to Lipper US Fund Flows. States and cities are set to issue $75 billion in the last three months of 2010, up from an earlier projection of $60 million, as issuers take advantage of plunging interest rates, Chris Mauro, a municipal-debt investment strategist for RBC Capital Markets in New York wrote in a report last month.

Yields on top-rated municipal debt maturing in 10 years reached the highest level in almost two months today following the biggest one-day increase since January.

They climbed 1 basis point to about 2.3 percent, the highest since Aug. 10, according to Bloomberg Valuation index data. The yield increased about 10 basis points yesterday, the most since Jan. 13. Before the recent rise, interest rates had fallen from about 3.5 percent on Jan. 18, the highest since Mar. 11, 2009, to 2 percent on Sept. 23.

Following are descriptions of pending sales of municipal debt:

The STATE OF WASHINGTON plans to borrow $1.29 billion in general-obligation bonds as soon as Oct. 10 with $516.7 million of the transaction in new money to help fund the Floating Bridge and Eastside Project. The remainder is to refinance debt. The state is rated AA+ by Standard & Poors, second-highest grade. JPMorgan Chase & Co. will lead a syndicate of banks on the deal. (Added Oct. 5)

NEW YORK CITY TRANSITIONAL FINANCE AUTHORITY, which finances capital projects for the most populous U.S. city, will sell $750 million of subordinate revenue debt as soon as Oct. 12 to convert variable-rate bonds into fixed-rate securities and refund debt. The authoritys subordinate debt is rated AAA, S&Ps highest grade. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is senior manager of the sale. (Added Oct. 6)

The STATE OF MICHIGAN is to borrow $138.7 million of general-obligation bonds as soon as Oct. 12. The transaction will help finance school loan programs and refund environmental program debt. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moodys Investors Service, its third-lowest ranking. Robert W. Baird & Co. will lead the sale. (Added Oct. 5)

CHICAGO BOARD OF EDUCATION, which finances school construction for the third-largest public-education system in the U.S., will sell as soon as next week $398 million of general-obligation bonds secured with dedicated revenue. Proceeds will renovate school buildings and finance expansion. The deal is rated Aa3, Moodys fourth-highest grade. Jefferies & Co. will lead a syndicate of banks on the sale. (Added Oct. 6)

--With assistance from Michael B. Marois in Sacramento. Editors: William Glasgall, Stephen Merelman

To contact the reporters on this story: Michelle Kaske in New York at mkaske@bloomberg.net; Andrea Riquier in New York at ariquier@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net

much private f.i. chatter about this again today - banks imo would have rissen higher today if not after the qe which long term in itself is an error - boe will really struggle with various targets it is already missing right now and before today's qe - the idiots!...

A financial transaction tax proposed by the European Commission would not enhance stability, according to a leading think tank. - STONKINGLY AGREED!

In a report released on Tuesday, the Centre for European Policy Studies said that despite the FTT's political appeal from raising tax revenues, the tax fails to address the factors that contributed to the global financial crisis.

"The FTT will probably only be used as a revenue-raising tool, with no specific aims to strengthen financial stability or secure credible resolution mechanisms," the study says.

"If it becomes a reality, the proposal should not undermine the chances of more meaningful tax policy alternatives being implemented in the future," it adds.

Although the European Commission recently stated its preference for the FTT, CEPS said the tax does not fulfil a series of criteria which should be key in deciding on its introduction.

These are that the proposed policy does not "aggravate systemic risks", is "relatively hard to avoid" and should "correct the incentives to take on more leverage". The FTT does not fare well on any of these points, said the think tank.

Although the tax could help mitigate systemic risk by targeting derivatives transactions, the report found that "the FTT misses out completely on addressing the growth of leverage or amending the tax preferences for debt, which are embedded in most tax systems across the EU."

Added to this, a globally uncoordinated FTT is likely to aggravate tax avoidance and relocations, said the report. "In driving a substantial proportion of the transactions away, the tax is also likely to hamper the monitoring and enforcement capacities of the home state supervisors."

The commission initially preferred a financial activity tax which would tax "supra-normal" profits and renumeration.

interesting day for banks tomorrow again LOL!!!!