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

tomasz - no it's not; it's a rise of <300 points

You boys near london need some cheap fuel???.,. diesel but only in red :))

my tart's car doesn't run on diesel!

What about the wife's??

red diesel - i might change balerboy to del boy!! you dont run around in a clapped out yellow 3 wheeler do you? i can supply some water damaged umbrellas if any use to you?? :-))))

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.liftruck.co.uk/images/oldcars/reliant-del-boy-trotter-van.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.liftruck.co.uk/reliant-supervan-mk111.htm&h=480&w=640&sz=88&tbnid=js-ouOerW-mbNM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddel%2Bboy%2Btrotter%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=del+boy+trotter&docid=KRoa1sZDGH_s8M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FyEfT9qwMJOf8gO51qGTDg&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQ9QEwBA&dur=125

have a good evening all

nor Beloved's mini cooper!

more importantly, AAPL has stampeded after hours on their results (glad i hold those) and that will assuredly be good for london tomorrow

and caused ftse to pop up 25 point too... but its getting down.. Apple's great but unfortunately these days economies are not just Apple...

Whats a bit of colour between friends.,.

GDP two times slower than forecast, not good.. ftse nice dive..i'll pick up temporary for apple later..

was expecting bit of bounce up for the us open to short more but this is just falling.. maybe fed speach could bring a bit of positive dillusion...

Yes spooky FTSE was just on 5,700 and DOW 12,600.

US Pending Home Sales m/m -3.5% v consensus -0.6% previous 7.3%

ftse bounce up on fed so just added to short 5720, cant see more ...

well i see now..5750....nuts..bottom line to keep that low rates for that long time is exposing tons of trouble ahead to need to keep that long and low...market nuts

CBI realised sales -22 v consensus -2 previous 9

I'm confused, market going up in a recession?

markets always look forward at least 6 months, so the perception is that both US and UK will be faring considerably better towards the end of 2012

US Core Durable Goods Orders m/m 2.1% v consensus 0.9% previous 0.3%

US Unemployment Claims 377k v consensus 371k previous 352k

US Durable Goods Orders m/m 3.0% v consensus 2.1% previous 3.7%

keaydian, agree, market is nuts here and greedy at his best chasing itself in a self fulfilling rally...but volume getting lower and lower..

Today's stats.