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

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 :-)

Europe shares rally on hopes of bold EU plan



16:36, Friday 21 October 2011

PARIS (Reuters) - European stocks rallied on Friday, ending a roller-coaster week on a positive note as investors bet that swift measures to stop contagion from the Greek debt crisis will soon be unveiled at EU summits

tucked away a nice profit from long ftse as uncertain what the w/e will bring other than frost

LOL Stonking finish on the Dow,dont you just love those crazy yanks.

The markets will go one of two ways next week, if europe sorts the mess a good week.
If not, it does not need me to say.

'the markets will go one of two ways next week....'

That is an incredibly astute observation. No shit Sherlock springs to mind!

Can you let me know if it will go up first and stay up or go up and come down or go down first and then up or any other combination thereof?

Thank you in advance :)

You tell me, instead of asking me all the questions.

Lol - no point me telling you anything, you never listen :)