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

Pissing me off big time is this market.....

It's all macro issues driving the market. I suppose there's been a double whammy with the Fed's statement about QE, and Eurozone issues flaring up again with Spain's failed bond auction. Any positive news is being ignored for the moment.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17611764

yet another tree shake to generate some volume.

Sadly, looking a big grim in Spain!:
"an auction of Spanish government bonds this morning didn’t go according to plan. The country issued €2.59bn in short to medium-term debt, but the target range had been between €2.5 and €3.5bn. In other words, investors weren’t very keen to buy.

Recent news on Spain has been grim, with the new government coming under pressure from its Eurozone peers to revise down its budget deficit target for 2012 even as unemployment rises.

Figures released yesterday revealed that Spanish unemployment had risen by nearly 40,000 to hit 4.75m people or 23.6% of the workforce. Over half of young people in Spain do not have a job."

HOw does it compare with this time last year?

Not well, really!!



Chart from http://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/directory?hl=en&dl=en

Hmmm - GBP Manufacturing Production m/m -1.0% v consensus 0.1% previous 0.1%

hence market sell-off, though more of a wobble than anything else ...... i think the markets accept that double-dip is now less than unlikely despite inevitable hiccoughs along the way

EUR German Industrial Production m/m -1.3% v consensus -0.3% previous 1.6%

double dip
less than unlikely?
hmmm. thats confused me. is that a double something or other also? now let me see what are the alternatives?
more than unlikely,less than likely, more than likely, unlikely. likely, etc.etc.
colour me confused lol
regards to all
jkd

spain is finished - qe3 - i hope not and uk plc has been in recession realistically for over 10 years - just that heavy labour borrowing over that period made it look like we were a booming economy which was a load of crap - we are paying for it now and will do for at least all our lifetimes and some of the legacy such as immigration labour left behind can not be repaired lol - now we are running out of water, electricity will be next etc - have a good weekend :-)))))))))))))))))))

another real stinker of a day ...... AAPL was almost my only positive stock and it's fortunate that i decided to bank the nice profit accrued before even that stock headed south

cynic AAPL?

Apple ...... it's a serious h'weight stock but has been going bonkers of late, and performing much better than GOOG (Google) which i also watch, but trade much less often

cynic when is Apple going to start paying tax on its overseas earnings?

no idea, do you? ...... and philip green and a myriad of others? ...... have they acted illegally? ..... do you only buy ethical stocks, like tobacco etc? ...... btw, you never did answer as to what oil stocks you and your merry men have bought

Grim day on both exchanges, but wonder if tomorrow may be a little better as Alcoa's results, which were anounced after the close, came in way above expectations.

may be tempted back into AAPL later, though not at anything like the discount i sold at yesterday to where it closed - indicating + about $8

AAPL closed down 1.2% last night @628.44, although they reached a new high of 644$ during the session :- Apple's market value hits $600bn

i sold out at 641.85 but indicating from london at opening at about 636