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

unless i am much mistaken, tech stocks have lagged badly in this strong rally, and accordingly have bought into both AAPL and GOOG

Looking good for the morrow. Still letting my profits run, but ready to sell as this surely can't last. (I concur with #7151). Trading bounce, suckers rally, call it what you will, but ..........
You have been very quiet recently, Cynic.........assumed bulk chemicals were focussing all your attention.

Hi Ricardo, no worries, hope you've managed to sort things out, especially the horrid.

Jeez, DOW short stopped out at entry (11590) at 2042 before tanking 120 pts. ARGHHHHHHH!!!!

CNN - "JPMorgan reported profit and revenue figures that topped Wall Street estimates, but fell from a year earlier. Investors were disappointed as CEO Jamie Dimon said the investment bank is being "extremely cautious, while navigating through this challenging economic environment."

"It's a difficult environment for banks to make money," said Dave Hinnencamp, CEO at KDV Wealth Management. "The banking sector is facing a lot of headwinds, considering what's happening in Europe."

Looks like no matter what you do, the market is going to remain unimpressed at the moment.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The number of Americans filing for their first week of unemployment benefits dipped slightly but remained over 400,000, according to a government report.

There were 404,000 initial unemployment claims filed in the week ended Oct. 8, the Labor Department said Thursday, down 1,000 from the prior week's revised 405,000.

Economists had forecast initial claims to rise to 406,000, according to a consensus estimate compiled by Briefing.com.

Harry - fickle doesn't do it justice!

glad to say that both AAPL and GOOG are performing well against the trend

no comment required ....
Google tops sales and earnings estimates with third-quarter revenue of nearly $10 billion. Google+ grows to 40 million users.

Well done cynic you picked a winner, may I ask what the fxxk that has to do with trading UKX, would I be wrong in saying as Eric Morecambe made famous 'NOT A LOT' :O) Looking at tomorrows economic data unless I'm badly mistaken UKX and Dow going to get roasted, but then again we are dealing with crazy yanks and an equally crazy market so they will probably rocket. Firmly on sidelines a casino at mo.

Not sure about friday. The slovaks positive vote: "The action now means that every Eurozone member has approved the plan to increase the fund to 440bn and give it the ability to purchase sovereign bonds, as well as granting it powers to extend emergency lending." Maybe the temporary feelgood factor will kick in again???

For how long Harry, hope you are right and all our troubles will be over, pigs might fly(no pun intended). Temporary sounds like a good call.

chris - nothing, but there is nowhere sensible to post here on us stocks ..... btw, "not a lot" was paul daniels

Very temporary CC! Quite a few stocks seemed to have been marked up at the open and have now already drifted off. Not sure if that's right as some of the streaming data looked iffy.

Marvelous, internet connection gone awol at home in local library for catch up.

cynic - quite right re Paul Daniels :O)

Harry - This aft will be interesting, down to those crazy yanks as per.

Retails sales 1.1% v consensus 0.8%

Does anyone know the schedule for today's 'fix the world' meeting ?

US consumer sentiment sags in Oct, expectations sour

Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly slumped in early October as worries about declining incomes drove consumer expectations back down to the lowest level in more than 30 years, a survey released on Friday showed.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment sagged to 57.5 from 59.4 the month before. It fell short of the median forecast of 60.2 among economists polled by Reuters.

I thought the G20 meeting was over the weekend?

Yes - I think you are right - I had a quick look earlier and couldn't find a timetable - bloody internet - useless :-)

A downgrade for Spain before the G20 talks could put them back in crisis talks.