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

cynic - Good call re apple, Dow on a flyer. Presume you will be taking profits prior to results (on apple)? If there as good as expected and you have a Dow long open it will be kerchiiinnng as well :O)

wall street suddenly roofing ..... some sort of eurozone deal apparently on the table

Germany & France agreed to hike fund...........

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/u-s-stocks-extend-gain-on-report-of-rescue-pact.html


France and Germany have reached agreement to boost the eurozone's rescue fund to 2tn (1.75tn) as part of a "comprehensive plan" to resolve the sovereign debt crisis, which this weekend's summit should endorse, EU diplomats said.

King Warns 'Time Is Running Out' For Economy - Sky News
The Governor of the Bank of England has warned that "time is running out" for the UK and global economy.Sir Mervyn King told bosses the "recovery in our trade position is at risk of stalling"

.

AAPL - ouch!!

Apple stuns Wall Street with rare miss, shares down over 6%

Skinny, any thoughts on ASHM? Pays 10.34p divi on 2nd Nov (current sp 320p) , but I know it has suffered recently.

Harry - not one I know much about, but I will look. One reservation (for me) is emerging market property investment - which I'm not too keen on atm.

sounds like a good one to avoid like the plague

Harry not one for me atm - for reasons stated above.

macd crossing over and rsi just moving away from oversold - although the latter, after a reasonable price fall is less indicative. Good luck with it if you buy. My next dividend purchase is likely to be HFD. For info - the cheapest I was offered on ISG yesterday was 184.5 (on lots between 2k and 10k) - I didn't buy - its currently down 8 (div 10p) but on 3850 traded.

Global stocks fall, euro dips as EU summit hopes fade

Caroline Valetkevitch, 20:46, Wednesday 19 October 2011

NEW YORK (Frankfurt: A0DKRK - news) (Reuters) - World stocks declined and the euro pared gains on Wednesday after optimism faded that European leaders will make substantial progress on the euro zone debt crisis this weekend.

A report from the Federal Reserve that the U.S. economic outlook dimmed in September also sapped sentiment, even though the Fed's survey of conditions across the country found that the economy continued to grow slightly in September.

Crazy World.

eBay reports 14% rise in profits

But in after-hours trading in New York, the company's shares fell 5% to $31.45.

Witching!

Bernard M has been very quiet lately! Presumably no oportunities to short anything?
Crazy Yanks up over 200 points atm!!!

Harry have a look at the william hill thread.

Yes, saw that thanks. Not much more I could say, so left it at that.

very difficult markets at the moment and very difficult to know what to do, if anything

I've left a FTSE and a UKBANKS short in - so everything should be rosey next week :-)