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

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.

US Advance GDP q/q 2.8% v consensus 3.0% previous 1.8%

EU Delays Bank Bond Writedown Plan Until Debt Crisis Abates
Jan 27, 2012 10:03 AM GMT .

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s financial services chief, said he’ll wait until the region is “past the worst” of its fiscal crisis before unleashing proposals to write down creditors at failing banks.

“We have to get past the worst of this crisis to present this proposal at the right moment,” the European Commissioner said in a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. That may be in “some weeks, or rather some months.”

Global regulators have called for rules imposing losses on bank creditors in a bid to prevent lenders being too-big-to- fail. The Financial Stability Board said so-called bail-in systems should be put in place for all international banks.

Lenders including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) have warned that writedowns for senior bondholders may make it more expensive for banks to attract funding.

“I want to avoid any misunderstanding,” said Barnier about his plans designed to prevent taxpayers footing the bill for bailing out failing banks “in the medium to long term.”

Barnier said that he’s still making up his mind on plans by Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1) and NYSE Euronext (NRX) to create the world’s largest exchange. He said he’s been unable to give his full attention to the dossier because of an official trip last week to Asia.

The commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive arm, will decide next week whether to back a proposal from the EU’s antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, to block the deal.

‘Personal Time’
“It’s a very important decision,” Barnier said. “I need a bit of personal time to work on this dossier and to make a judgement.”

Barnier said that he’s considering tougher EU rules for bank bonuses after criticizing some payouts as “inexplicable.”

One possible idea is a pay ratio designed to limit the difference between the highest and lowest salaries at lenders, he said.

Barnier, a former French minister, said that he will also seek views “in the coming weeks” on possible rules for so- called shadow banks, and called for leaders at Davos to back a global financial transactions tax.

‘Volcker Rule’
Separately, Barnier will next month raise “concerns” with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on how a proposed ban on commercial banks trading on their own account may discriminate against European sovereign debt.

Under the proposals for the so-called Volcker rule, trading in U.S. government bonds would be exempt from the ban and this carve-out wouldn’t be extended to other nations’ sovereign debt, said Barnier’s spokeswomanChantal Hughes.

The commissioner will discuss the matter with Geithner during a trip to the U.S. on Feb. 23-24, Hughes said in an e- mail.

The commission has set up an EU high-level group to examine possible measures to change banks’ structure and reign in their risk taking. The committee’s remit will include examining whether a version of the Volcker rule should be imposed on EU leaders, Barnier said.

Today's Market Overview

FTSE 100 DOW S&P 500
5,724 71.70 / -1.24% 12,660 74.17 / -0.58% 1,316 2.10 / -0.16%
GMT 08:00 Jan 30 2012 GMT 21:04 Jan 27 2012 GMT 21:32 Jan 27 2012

Core PCE Price Index m/m 0.2% v consensus 0.1% previous 0.1%

Personal Spending m/m 0.0% v consensus 0.2% previous 0.1%

Personal Income m/m 0.5% v consensus 0.4% previous 0.1%