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

GBP Trade Balance -10.1B consensus -8.5B previous -8.4B

all very much running out of puff ..... hardly surprising after such a strong run

French Industrial Production m/m 0.0% consensus 0.4% previous -1.9%

GBP PPI Input m/m 1.3% consensus 1.4% previous -2.2%

GBP PPI Output m/m 0.0% consensus 0.1% previous -0.4%

I reckon weak data from China will probably cause the markets to pause, and maybe fall.

... unless, of course, we hear some more ECB rhetoric

CAD Employment Change -30.4k consensus 9.6K previous 7.3K

CAD Unemployment Rate 7.3% consensus 7.2% previous 7.2%

USD Import Prices m/m -0.6% consensus 0.1% previous -2.7%

Mistress - looking ever braver to be short of the markets

Hmm - so much for my idea of the markets going down eh?

'fraid so :-(

Why keep shorting something that wants to go up?
If it's going down, short it, if it's going up, go long.
Ideas don't work with Indices, going with the trend mostly works.

.

Yeah thanks Chuckles. I shall put all ideas aside from now on. Had thought that if the Ftse reached 5850 it would drop back - and it did for a while, so am ok. But I'm amazed at the late-night charge.

Just bizarre how what are obviously very negative figures are treated as a positive:
"US equities shrugged off worries about slowing economic growth in China to keep the bull run going.

In July the world’s second largest economy saw exports rise just 1% compared to a consensus estimate of a rise of 8%. Imports, meanwhile, grew less than expected. The year-on-year rise was 4.7% versus market expectations of a 7.2% rise. The trade surplus narrowed from $31.7bn in June to $25.1bn in July.

Although macroeconomic news initially had investors drawing in their horns, the afternoon session saw shares take off, pushing the S&P 500 index to a five week high. Once again, the reason for the turnaround was the ability of stock market bulls to turn any negative into a positive, to wit bad news means more fiscal stimulus from global banks is on the way." (Digitallook)

The Only Way is Up

Lol Skinny! Agree with Harrycat though: it does seem bizarre

Yes - it is bizarre, but the market seems to want to go up - so why fight it - something I've been very guilty of in the past.

I must admit though that I have been selling off a few frontliners this past week - CNA, & HSBA, with a view to buy them back when/if there is a pull back.

Interestingly, the DOW is today responding to weak data from Japan - by actually going DOWN, not up!

The point is that no new company is coming to the market, so the current companies are forcing the workers to work well above their contract - higher productivity and access to cheap money.

Middle class people are in trouble, but not the companies as much.

but assuredly neither GOOG nor AAPL which continue to forge ahead :-))