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

MAM says disappointing economic numbers from China
oh really?????????
FT says surprisingly strong start to year for manufacturing in China
who would you choose to believe?

Cynic - hope this helps :-) China export and import demand dips amid global fears

The demand for Chinese exports fell in January as global economic uncertainty continued to hurt consumer confidence.

Latest government data showed China's new export order index fell to 46.9 from 48.6 in the previous month.

The imports index also dropped to 46.9 from 49.3 in December, showing that domestic demand was slowing.

The data comes amid concerns over the impact of a global slowdown on China's economy.

Manufacturing PMI 52.1 v consensus 50.1 previous 49.6

Intraday triple top on the FTSE - also looks like it may form one on the daily.

ADP Non-Farm Employment Change 170K v consensus 189K previous 325K

(Reuters) - Greece's private sector creditors could take a loss of more than 70 percent in a planned debt swap, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Tuesday.

"There is a very serious discussion based on new facts. We are talking about a PSI much greater than the original," he told lawmakers, referring to private sector involvement in the deal.

"We are talking about a haircut on the net present value exceeding 70 percent," he said.

ooops!

US ISM Manufacturing PMI 54.1 v consensus 54.6 previous 53.9

US Construction Spending m/m 1.5% v consensus 0.7% previous 1.2%

US ISM Manufacturing Prices 55.5 v consensus 49.5 previous 47.5

ftse is diverging everywhere, its getting weaker and weaker every run up and still managing to take a piss these who are short already e.g. me... lol

Yes, I agree with you. March may be the time for a big correction when the Greeks may well default. Am intending to lock in profits before that.

I've just had a word with Barclays about them taking a 70% haircut on my mortgage debt, and asked if they could just re-categorise it as Greek debt because I did go there once. Something then went wrong with the telephone line so I expect they'll call me back.

seymour yes lol - i am sure they were impressed with your 'out of the box thinking', but i think you will find that you will only qualify if you visited the mainland, not the islands such as crete, rhodes, euboea, corfu, lesbos, icaria etc which dont count as they are all up for sale lol!! i am sure they will get back to you with an offer of sorts! ; let me know when the court date is i'll be a witness for you :-))))

GBP Construction PMI 51.4 v consensus 52.8 previous 53.2

could be ftse in a process of triple toping

tomasz - see post 7809 - also looks like a potential H&S.

h&s could be too

and then back to 5000, i dont mind :)

More like 4800.

i mean i wouldnt mind give away last 200 points to the charity :))

at the moment, shorting the indices is a mug's game .... of course they won't rise in a straight line, but upward momentum remains strong ..... +/-5700 is n ow the obvious support

Lets hope so cynic - I remember pointing out a triple top last year on this thread...