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

cash ftse is curently showing -14 and cash dow down a further 15

I'm not trading it, but interesting to see that in the current rally since July Dow has bounced after dipping close to, through or bang on 50DMA which is where it more or less is currently at. Not getting involved :O)

it's at about 13300 but rising

interesting - following on from chris's comment yesterday ...... today's cash dow trading low was 12971 and now a sharp bounce to 13366

cynic - Just an observation, I am no chartist. Kiss principle, trend is your friend till it isn't, support and resistance, 50 and 200DMA above and below exit and entry points. I haven't got a clue what those crazy yanks are going to do next :O)

you're absolutely right ..... the only thing about charts, is that there are lots of acolytes of same, so they are often self-fulfilling

history has shown that guru is consistently good with his GANN theory charting interpretation and even MRSI regularly predicts well though he seems to use the much more basic bollinger bands at least as a base

Italy's pays more at 3-year bond sale after Spanish cut

MILAN | Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:31am BST

(Reuters) - Italy paid more than last month to sell three-year bonds at auction on Thursday, with investors unnerved by a credit downgrade that pushed Spain to within a notch of a 'junk' rating.

Rome's borrowing costs rose to 2.86 percent from 2.75 percent at a similar sale in September, halting a four-month run of declining yields.

But demand was solid and the yields remained well below a peak of 5.3 percent in June, a month before European Central Bank head Mario Draghi engineered a drop in peripheral sovereign borrowing costs with a pledge to protect the euro.

"Markets are taking Standard and Poor's two-notch downgrade of Spain in their stride and continue to perceive the euro zone's problems as mostly country-specific, thus helping Italy differentiate itself from Spain," said Nicholas Spiro, director at Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

USD Trade Balance -44.2B consensus -44.1B previous -42.0B

USD Unemployment Claims 339k consensus 368K previous 367K

USD Import Prices m/m 1.1% consensus 0.7% previous 0.7%

i think we may see some rumbustious rocking and rolling in the aisles in usa this afternoon ...... could well be that the bears of both GOOG and AAPL find themselves squealing a bit

U.S. Appeals court reverses injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus Smartphone in patent fight with Apple

how very dull of them!

Cynic: what's worse than finding a worm in your Apple?

Answer: half a worm... I hope you've taken your profits!

i'm afraid i'm sitting on a bit of a loss on dow at the moment, but nothing nasty
did you watch the prog on india last night? ..... very interesting and gives one a rather different perspective on many things

Sitting on a loss Cynic? I'm not surprised if you're using 400 point stops.

Shoot the guru :-)

No, I didn't see the programme about India - I was watching a very interesting programme on Chinese porcelain. So much going on the Far East and I know so little about it!

The DOW does seem to be losing ground at the moment. Have to say I'm short FTSE - just don't trust all the hype I hear!

The good ol Dow Jones will finish blue tomorrow, by at least +50 pts.

Just a guess, I guess, but the trend hasn't been broken (yet).

Prog on India was mainly about Kolkata, which is probably one of the poorest and most congested of indian cities. Sanjeev Baskar went to Bangalore on his journey round India recently and the glass, steel and technology put london in the shade!

Recent comment on the US jobless figures make a bit of a mockery of the stats;
"The US saw mixed results on Thursday, with stocks initially boosted by jobless data, which showed a fall to levels not seen in over four years, but then dampened by confusion over its accuracy.

It was widely reported that the figures have been significantly distorted by seasonal factors, with one equity strategist reportedly saying claims should in fact have been 30,000 higher.

Others have suggested that the decline was due to one of the larger states delaying its re-certification process, which ties in with the fact that the majority of other states reported an unadjusted increase in claims.".

Thanks for that clarification Harrycat. I hadn't quite trusted those 'best in four years' figures when they were released - can't help feeling it's all part of the electioneering process

And if it is all part of the electioneering process Toya, what difference does it make to your trading?

Are you saying that in your opinion the figs are manufactured therefore it's a short?

It doesn't matter what little old us think, it's a long whilst it's going up and it's a short when it's going down.

Right now it's a long until the trend is broken. You're trading on what you think rather than what you see.

It could all change very quickly tomorrow, but the Dow has some unfinished business. Futs up +19 right now.

Hi Chuckles: FTSE may have been "up +19 right now", but was still below my short from 5860, having closed an earlier short at that point from 5900 to bank my profit.

I'm seeing something of a downward trend since mid-September. But then maybe that's just me, getting into pessimistic mood as we approach winter? My plan is to keep the short running until around the end of October and then see where we are. I don't have time to sit and watch it all hour-by-hour currently.

As for the DOW: I have noticed that the FTSE hasn't kept up with it in recent weeks. Since mid-September, the DOW has actually hit an even higher-high on more than one occasion, while the FTSE has kept well below 5900.

Just my observations...