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

Yes it's good :) http://www.philadelphiafed.org/newsroom/press-releases/2011/121511.cfm

Out +40.

well done. you r brave though.

The more I try and understand these "figures" the more confused I seem to become.

Apparently the 30year German debt yields have hit an all time low today!

Looking at the graph here, German some short term bonds have a negative yield.. Seems nuts to me - http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/rates-bonds/government-bonds/germany/

Look at the DOW now! I think its time (for me) to ignore the figures and dust down the runes :-)

Well I'm now long for my sins - stop at entry - hmmm!

US CPI figures @1:30 could make or break the day.

0.2% v consensus 0.1%

Consumer prices rose at a 3.4% annual rate in November, virtually unchanged from the prior month, the government says.

To save confusion - I should have been more specific - I was referring to the core CPI (which apparently is of higher importance) :-)

Today's numbers.

Options expiry today.

The most bullish of the four apparently, up 15 of the last 19!

Futures looking rather interesting - could this be the start of a Christmas rally!

Amazing. Trust you are making money on the DOW, skinny?

Dow Jones
12,101.99
+335.73
+2.85% Bodes well for Wednesday

Harry for a change - yes !

Speaks at 4pm.

..Italian borrowing costs halve in successful bond auction

By Szu Ping Chan | Telegraph – 6 minutes ago


Italy passed the first part of its final bond test of the year with flying colours on Wednesday, as short term borrowing costs halved in a €9bn (£7.5bn) auction that saw appetite for Italian debt rise.

Italy sold €9bn of six-month bills at an average rate of 3.25pc, down from euro-era highs of 6.50pc at a similar auction last month. Demand also rose, with 1.67 bidders for each bond, compared with 1.47 in November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) .

Separately, Italy sold €1.7bn of two-year bonds at an average rate of 4.85pc, down from 7.8pc a month ago. The bid-to-cover ratio rose to 2.24, compared with 1.59 last month.

The successful auctions saw yields on benchmark 10-year Italian bonds fall 22 basis points to 6.67pc. Another closely-watched sale of three, six and ten year bonds will be held on Thursday

.Dow Jones
12,165.26
-126.09
-1.03%