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

cynic - 09 May 2012 16:54 - 8137 of 8138

Correct with support. Look how the market has reacted to the Fib lines. These are drawn from calculating the length of the previous 'A' wave and reproducing them from the top of 'B'. Deadly!

gann guru pointed me in that direction,so not my own observation - far too complicated for me; i'm just a decrepit old fart

Italian Industrial Production m/m 0.5% v consensus 0.0% previous -0.7%

Eyes down for 9:30.

GBP Manufacturing Production m/m 0.9% v consensus 0.5% previous -1.0%

GBP Industrial Production m/m -0.3% v consensus -0.2% previous 0.4%

fairly hot off the press .....


One of Spain's largest banks has been part-nationalised as lenders continue to reel from the bursting of the property market bubble.
The state will take a 45% stake in Bankia, a lender which has the industry's largest exposure to toxic property assets.
The bank - Spain's fourth largest - was created only two years ago from a merger of seven struggling savings banks.
It will have a 4.47bn euro (£3.59bn) loan by the Spanish bailout fund converted into shares, owned by the state.
Bankia holds 32bn euros (£25.7bn) in distressed property assets.

Inflation-wary BoE to halt money-printing press

(Reuters) - The Bank of England looks set to call a halt to its asset-buying programme on Thursday, despite the economy having slipped into recession and renewed risks rising from the euro zone debt crisis, as UK inflation remains stubbornly high.

GBP Asset Purchase Facility 325B v consensus 325B previous 325B

USD Unemployment Claims 367K v consensus 371K previous 365K

GBP PPI Input m/m -1.5% v consensus -0.9% previous 1.9%

GBP PPI Output m/m 0.7% v consenus 0.4% previous 0.6%

The eurozone would cope if Greece left the currency union, Germany's finance minister said in an interview on Friday as Greek parties continued with efforts to form a government coalition.

the clearest signal that greece will not be bailed out ...... this has long been in on cards, the only question being when rather than if .......

and the prognosis for spain? ...... to use a current phrase, too big and important to be allowed to fail, i think

What about Portugal & Eire? They might see an easy way out if Greece is allowed to go.

Spain government to approve banks cleanup after tough talks

(Reuters) - Spain is set to intensify the clean-up of its banks on Friday after difficult last-minute talks between the government and lenders on details of planned financial system reforms.

The demise of SONY.

Eire looks to be on the road to recovery, so i don't think there is any real concern there .... portugal is small enough and does not look to be in quite the same straits as spain with its horrendous youth unemployment and massive and uncovered corruption

With big trading losses I often wonder where the money goes. Losses often reported, but the gain never seems to surface elsewhere:
"We (broker FBR) are lowering our rating on JPMorgan to Market Perform from Outperform and our price target to $37 from $50. Our downgrade comes on the heels of the company's disclosure that it has a large, illiquid hedge position on which it has already realized a $2 billion loss. "

Not a very clever hedge position - I would have thought that if the hedge was doing badly, then the position being hedged should be compensating?

I think it was a very complicated trade on "downside hedges on high grade credit". Way beyond my understanding of financial trading. But the point I was trying to make is that some company who covered the hedge is presumably $2bn in the black!

This is my preferred hedge :-)

I'm more of a bush person myself. Less to trim! ;o)

*edit 13/05/12* The drop on Friday evening, has changed my view and now need more PA before a verdict. We are in a flat corrective within the downtrend. I actually think we may go higher first to finish this move before plunging down later in the week...