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 Manufacturing Production m/m 3.2% consensus 2.1% previous -2.9%

GBP PPI Input m/m 2.0% consensus 1.6% previous 1.3%

have sold 1/2 my dow position for a very juicy profit as it was a bit too heavy ...... have also removed a slab of cash from my "broker's account" to stop it burning a hole in my pocket

Well Done Cynic.
Have a nice time in Dubai.

lots of work, but at least golf on monday

USD Non-Farm Employment Change 96k consensus 123K previous 163K

USD Unemployment Rate 8.1% consensus 8.3% previous 8.3%

cynic post #8569 "nothing goes in a straight line but 14545 is the target"
I guess a few people (including me) had a laugh at that, but I've recently stopped laughing.

.

I agree Harrycat! I shall be looking to try and find a good entry point from which to stay long - and will try not to take my profits too quickly, as I normally do, for fear of them drifting away.

Good luck with that! - Europe to outline banking union to tackle crisis

STRASBOURG, France | Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:17am BST
(Reuters) - Europe will move a step closer to a "banking union" on Wednesday with plans for the European Central Bank to oversee banks as part of efforts to end years of financial and economic turmoil in the region.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will outline the proposal in his annual "state of the union" address, which will also set out a path towards deeper economic integration across the euro zone and the wider EU.

GBP Claimant Count Change -15.0K consensus 0.1K previous -5.9K

Agreed Skinny. Nice to know that it's all going to be OK.

:-)

Apparently they have a new phone out!

i've been touting AAPL for months! ..... it's quite a little star as far as i am concerned, though i trade it quite regularly

I think the most important thing about the new phone is that it has 4G capability, which none of the current handsets have. A bit ahead of it's time as 4G isn't yet operational, but clearly setting the trend.

so i did - 13349.5 +4 for guaranteed stop ..... prob prove to have been too greedy by half!

and now i currently have the luxury problem of determining when to get out ..... before bernie gets to his feet? .... hmm!

aha - QE3 already announced, so have raised stop to 13375 to give me a certain profit and shall now go off for a really good steak and some red wine

stop way too early but neverthenless stroke of genius.well done.

you confuse stop with limit .... a very important diff!! .... closed the above at 13478 but still have decent dow long running + AAPL + GOOG
a def "wowee" day and very unexpected too

Just closed mine @13,539 for a few.

Just to reiterate :- Fed bets big in new push to rescue U.S. economy

WASHINGTON | Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:49pm BST

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve launched another aggressive stimulus program on Thursday, saying it will buy $40 billion (24.7 billion pounds) of mortgage-backed debt per month until the outlook for jobs improves substantially as long as inflation remains contained.

In an unprecedented step, the Fed's policymaking panel escalated its effort to drive U.S. unemployment lower by tying its unconventional bond buying directly to economic conditions, a move that immediately sparked controversy among its critics.