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

i don't need to be awake for i placed my bet when the index broke firmly through 13005 - as i intimated at the time
come to to think of it, i then took the profit as a precaution but bought back in again at a slightly higher level - 12274 for those doubters of my integrity

I'd estimate another 80 points or so to at least match the April high.

I suppose it should retrace a bit from there, but who knows, could fool everyone and make a new high for 2012, which in itself is weird.

confess i now have the luxury problem of when to take profits

.

German PPI m/m 0.0% consensus 0.4% previous -0.4%

EUR Current Account 12.7B consensus 7.8B previous 10.9B

EVerything looks better than expected. What happened to Euro crash, parity target with $, as Bloomberg TV was talking about? Jus bottom fishing or destruction of the xx..

meanwhile
AAPL keeps rockin' n rollin' - yippee! ...... and GOOG is bringing in the dosh too, though AMZN is a tad disappointing evn if in the money

GBP Public Sector Net Borrowing -1.8B consensus -2.7B previous 12.1B

GBP CBI Industrial Order Expectations -21 consensus -8 previous -6

Everything Everywhere gets 4G go-ahead from Ofcom

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has allowed Everything Everywhere, the company behind Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, to use its existing bandwidth to launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile services.

The move means 4G, which allows much faster downloads, could launch in the UK earlier than previously planned.

have taken money off the table last night (AMZN + some AAPL and GOOG) and this morning as markets have had a very strong run so some bad days are overdue with caution/selling also surely likely before b/h ..... am also off cycling from friday so can't monitor at all

Fed looks set to ease fairly soon barring swift rebound

By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull
WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:12am BST

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is likely to deliver another round of monetary stimulus "fairly soon" unless the economy improves considerably, minutes from the U.S. central bank's latest meeting suggested.

EUR Flash Manufacturing PMI 45.3 consensus 44.2 previous 44.0

EUR Flash Services PMI 47.5 consensus 47.7 previous 47.9

stinky day, so watch for (strong) support at +/-13,000 with a view to buying

GBP Revised GDP q/q -0.5% consensus -0.5% previous -0.7%

GBP Prelim Business Investment q/q -1.5% consensus 2.8% previous 1.9%

USD Pending Home Sales m/m 2.4% consensus 1.1% previous -1.4%

EUR German Unemployment Change 9K consensus 7K previous 7K

All down to Mr. Bernanke today then? A hint of Federal stimulus and we are heading to a new high.

the markets as always have been contrary ..... arguably, yesterday was just a bit of overdue profit-taking, though the market has been directionless for some time ..... more relevant that "hinted stimulus" should be the realisation that US is now coming in with consistently encouraging economic news

for sure there are still some big economies (india and china etc) still struggling (all relative), but with chemical shipments most assuredly on the upswing, the indicators are loud and clear - always subject to israel not getting totally out of its tree in relation to iran