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

Having watched a lot of it, I'm not sure 'smacked' is the right term - Obama probably edged it - but Romney was more controlled than he has been previously.

Reuters Today: Polls say Obama, Romney now tied (4:00)

GBP BBA Mortgage Approvals 31.2K consensus 30.9K pevious 30.7K

No point watching profits being erroded like you always point out Cynic, twitchy yes a little plus I'm looking at Bunzl at the moment for a potential play. Aggreko and Bunzl both on downgrade as not much love for support services at the moment, the wagons rolling so I'm looking to jump on.

Apple's share price rises ahead of iPad mini launch

Apple is expected to launch a scaled-down version of its iPad device on Tuesday, as it attempts to fend off rivals and persuade devotees to part with even more of their money.

skinny - straw poll i read indicated 53% pro obama, but of course it's the real farce to follow that will dictate ..... uk election politics looks supremely intelligent compared to those in usa


shortie - if your aapl stop is indeed at 635, i am quite surprised your position is still running as i see aapl closed at 634.03 so perhaps was higher afterwards

Should sell as soon as the market opens, order placed this morning. With GE and McDonalds missing revenue and earnings I thought yesterday would have been more negative.

I'm trying also to keep one eye on the Yen, BoJ considers further monetary policy? So I'm waiting for this as a further short position along with the Euro. Regional elections in Galicia and the Basque country are due at the weakend and results could impact the timing of a Spanish bailout request.

Shrtie,
I think you are looking at too much details, maybe loosing the full picture.

Ah ????

looking very nasty indeed ...... so much for half expecting a decent week!

Although I still expect thursday to be a decent day (FTSE), it looks as though we will just recover lost ground, rather than surging forward, which is a bit of a drag! Are we expecting an Obama bounce, assuming he stays in, or a Romney reaction up or down? Back to the Doves & Hawks as far as those two are concerned!

personally, i don't think obama has done a bad job ..... like cameron, he picked up a poisoned chalice ...... unfortunately, such is the confrontational nature of us politics, that expecting senators and congressmen to vote for what is best for the country, is like expecting the lions not to eat the christians in the colisseum (because they are on diet that month)

cynic do you mean the lions are left with the jews for supper!

they were far too stringy to make a decent meal

stingy more like

wouldn't feed their wives for sure; always went home to their mother's cooking :-)

pretty bearish day today cynic, you forcasting more to come this week.,.

Summary from Digitallook:
"US stocks were firmly in retreat on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones taking a plunge following weaker-than-expected earnings and ongoing concern over Spain and the wider economy.

The Dow Jones fell 243 points, its biggest one-day loss since June.

There was a bevy of weak company results out Stateside last night and earlier today. Chief amongst these has been chemicals maker DuPont, after which industrial conglomerate 3M and Xerox have lowered their earnings per share guidance for the year.

DuPont unveiled plans to slash 1,500 employees from its workforce after its most recent quarter delivered profit below expectations.

Results out of Texas Instruments, United Technologies and Regions Financial also came in below forecasts.

Also weighing on markets in today's session may have been comments from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble regarding how his government will not back any aid for Greece that it might deem unsustainable. Likewise, weak data out today in France is thought to be a factor behind the more negative market tone, as was the negative market chatter surrounding Spain and the Eurozone periphery more generally.

The US dollar was performing well, as is to be expected, with the ICE dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, climbed from 79.653 late Monday to 79.964 on Tuesday evening.

It was not all is bad news however, at least on the corporate front, amongst the exceptions out there today were Coach, Lexmark, Whirlpool, Harley Davidson and Yahoo - shares in which rose 5% after the close of trading last night."

sorry BB, but i've lost the rhythm and feel at the moment .... i await guru's latest dow review, but i suspect he'll reiterate that a momentum fall through 12900 on dow is the real concern

'Manufacturing data from China suggested that a recovery in the world's second-biggest economy was strengthening.
The HSBC Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for China climbed to a three-month high of 49.1 in October and new orders and output rose, pointing to a turnaround in the economy. But the recovery is likely to be slow as the PMI stayed below the 50-point level separating expansion from contraction.'

If the miners rise, then we should have a more positive day on the FTSE - perhaps??