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 dow not looking good ar 12810, when do you bite the bullet?

below 12500

cynic thats showing a lot of faith in Draghi whose cover has been blown, the end game for the euro is nigh.

so have you cashed in everything and now running heavy shorts all over the place?

cynic looks like a tipping point has been reached, what do you think?

about what? ..... i think the € will survive despite various countries' best efforts to collapse ..... it is certain that the world will come out of this recession, perhaps starting Q4, though i confess i did not think it would last this long anyway .... it is likely that $ will continue to strengthen especially against € ..... it is likely that george osborne's tough programme will prove to have been the correct course

Maybe the € will survive, but not with the current membership, imo. It's impossible for the likes of Greece & Eire to have parity with Germany & France. Lots of rhetoric, but either the ECB & IMF take control of the little economies, which ultimately means that the dominant Euro contries take control, or the little countries exit and run their own micro economies as best they can in their own interests. As I have said before, get ready for a slow march towards a Federal Europe.

GBP Services PMI 51.0 consensus 51.6 previous 51.3

I guess someone has made a bundle over the last few days.

And it wasn't me... I ended up more or less where I'd started the day, after all my efforts!

USD Unemployment Rate 8.3% consensus 8.2% previous 8.2%

USD Non-Farm Employment Change 163K consensus 101K previous 80K

USD Average Hourly Earnings m/m 0.1% consensus 0.2% previous 0.3%

i'm certainly not complaining having easily made up more than lost yesterday ...... sold off most of my AAPL and GOOG yesterday as a precaution and to lock in some more profit, but may well buy them back today

wowee! a real rock n roll day .... bought back nearly all AAPL and GOOG and both of these are ahead, and of course by dow long is thundering

have now banked a very nice profit on half my dow long

at the risk of being a bit greedy have today bought into AMZN and PCI (see thread) and also topped up FOGL (to ride the momentum but with a view to bank some profit before drilling result)

Mistress has just berated me for not commenting on FTSE ..... guru says, though it's a bit late now, to buy aggressively on a break above 5710 with a shortish term target of 5989

Am I forgiven now Mistress, though i fear you may have burnt your knickers a bit should you be wearing any!?

Hi Cynic - thanks for checking out that figure... and no, I won't be showing mine here :)

GBP Manufacturing Production m/m -2.9% consunsus -4.0% previous 1.2%

GBP Industrial Production m/m -2.5% consensus -3.3% previous 1.0%

Industrial output takes hit from extra holidays in June

LONDON | Tue Aug 7, 2012 9:57am BST

(Reuters) - British manufacturing output shrank sharply in June, as the extra public holidays to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne lowered output, data showed on Tuesday.

However, the decline was slightly smaller than initially estimated, pointing to a modest upward revision of second-quarter gross domestic product.

The Office for National Statistics said that manufacturing output fell 2.9 percent after a 1.2 percent rise in May. Economists had forecast a slump by 4.1 percent on the month, though analysts have struggled to predict the impact of the additional days off.

Good old Merv - Bank of England expected to cut UK growth forecasts

The Bank Of England is expected to cut growth forecasts close to zero from the 0.8% predicted in May as the double-dip recession intensifies.

The quarterly inflation report is likely to indicate no growth for 2012 compared with 2% predicted a year ago.

Governor Sir Mervyn King is expected to be asked about a possible interest rate cut from the current record 0.5%.