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

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 :-))

Half a percent rise a day is not bad, is it?
I think both will continue forging ahead, nothing can stop them. They have the world, 7bln people.Even if 1bln in trouble, other 6bln have not got many options to choose from.

having been ramping (lol) these for ages, but none seem to listen ...... in fact, i trade them both quite regularly as they can be pretty volatile

French Prelim GDP q/q 0.0% consensus -0.1% previous 0.0%

German Prelim GDP q/q 0.3% consensus 0.2% previous 0.5%

GB CPI y/y 2.6% consensus 2.3% previous 2.4%

German ZEW Economic Sentiment -25.5 consensus -19.4 previous -19.6

USD Core Retail Sales m/m 0.8% consensus 0.4% previous -0.4%

USD PPI m/m 0.3% consensus 0.3% previous 0.1%

USD Retail Sales m/m 0.8% consensus 0.3% previous -0.5%

Got a small short running on the Dow from about 10 mins ago. Good job as it happen because I'd mistakenly gone long earlier. Spotted my mistake though and escaped with a £2.50 loss. Not sure this trade will come good either, but it's looking more short than long at the mo.

Dow short closed for 20 points, may well drop more before the close but hit the target so that's that for the night, wont be tempted back in

GBP Claimant Count Change -5.9k consensus 6.2K previous 6.1K

GBP Unemployment Rate 8% consensus 8.1% previous 8.1%

Investors awaiting a U.S. report on industrial production (14.15 hrs BST).

“If we see better economic data out of the U.S., it can’t be excluded that further Fed stimulus won’t come anytime soon, which could disappoint some investors,” said Christoph Riniker, head of strategy research at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich. “One must also say that after the positive price developments in recent weeks, a bit of a breather on the markets makes sense.”

USD Core CPI m/m 0.1%n consensus 0.2% previous 0.2%

USD CPI m/m 0% consensus 0.2% previous 0.0%

USD Empire State Manufacturing Index -5.9 consensus 6.6 previous 7.4