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

Thanks for that Skinny - Brasted is indeed a pretty little village

Yes it is - I've haven't been for a few years, but there used to be an excellent butchers in the high street.

FTSE turning south as expected, EUR also weakening GBP/EUR 1.2457 so continue to short but might close out position by end of day.

Apple slightly off then, but look at Sumsungs bumper result!!

.

YTD.

Lovely HTML skills there Skinny (9237) :-)

FX VIEW: Naked CDS, The Euro, And Unintended Consequences

By Katie Martin The euro could be in for a rough ride when a ban on some types of debt derivatives trading comes into force across the European Union next week. Starting next Thursday, November 1, traders and investors will be unable to buy insurance against sovereign debt defaults, in the form of credit default swaps, unless they hold the underlying bonds. So, if you want to buy Spanish CDS, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you already hold Spanish government bonds. You can't just buy Spanish CDS in isolation (in a 'naked' form, to use the parlance) as a punt on Spanish doom. It's all an effort to stamp out the impression given, particularly in the heady days of 2010, that speculation in CDS contracts was pushing down government bonds. (That chain of logic is disputed, but still, a ban's a ban.) Thing is, that may mean that trading the euro stands out even more clearly as the best way to bet on or hedge against euro-crisis meltdown. "If investors suspect a significant rise in default risk in, say Greece or Spain, how are they likely to express this if the CDS market is off bounds? There's other assets like stocks and bonds--but there's short-selling restrictions here too. In our view, that leaves the euro," said Steve Barrow, a currencies analyst at Standard Bank in London, describing it as a "sinister conclusion". "If policymakers have got it wrong and the region continues to struggle, the reduction in the number of viable ways to express bearish positions could make the euro more vulnerable than it has been in the past," he said. Now, a weaker, export-boosting euro could be just what the region needs. But as Mr. Barrow adds, this may be more a case of extra volatility than of extra weakness. Is the euro going to swing wildly next Thursday? Maybe--who knows what'll happen on that day? But if it does, it likely won't be for this reason alone. Traders have had months to prepare for this ban, after all. Still, this is worth watching as yet another unintended consequence of the ban. Investors who like to hedge positions in Russian bonds, for example, with Polish CDS, will have to find another way to cushion the risks. Investors who like to use indexes that bundle together lots of countries' CDS as a broad hedge against euro crisis risks, will need to show they hold every single underlying bond. Spoiler alert: few investors do, particularly if they're nervous about euro calamities. More broadly, investors may decide that if they can't hedge the risk, they won't buy the bonds--unlikely to be what the ban's official architects had in mind. Potentially boosting euro volatility probably wasn't on the 'to-do' list either.

SC - I was bored at 6 this morning :-)

I am upgrading to Windows 8.
Demand has been so high that the bank couldn't charge me, so authorization delayed the download.

USD Advance GDP q/q 2.0% consensus 1.9% previous 1.3%

USD Advance GDP Price Index q/q 2.8% consensus 2.0% previous 1.6%

Brave man ahoj!

Well that was a nice solid 45 from the DOW.

Wow yes - what a zoom!

The GDP figure is being reported as Federal Gov't spending before the election.

Cheers,
KidA

Windows 8 professional is great, much easier to use. Quite similar to iPad, but more flexible.

AAPL
i feel like a deep-fried codpiece (well battered!), but i have bravely (or do i mean insanely?) decided to keep holding ...... though sp continues to dive, and "discipline" should demand that i dump, my own view was that the figures were really quite good ..... next Q across the holiday period forecast by AAPL themselves (never more than conservative) to be stunningly good, so what does the market think it knows that i do not, or is this a self-fulfilling feeding frenzy that sooner or later will reverse with interest?

Good luck with that cynic!

ahoj - I'd be interested to know what you think after a week or so of usage.

have you closed your short yet skinny? ..... relatively speaking, AAPL has roared back from a low today of about 591 to 609 = where it started

Anyone who is short on the Indices tonight is going to get toasted.

If you haven't already started your bullish engines, your loss.

cynic - my last trade was a DOW long on US GDP and closed @13:55.

The building sector may get another fillip on Monday - based on the news in the Grauniad - Government orders building standards review

Building standards review is the latest in a series of government initiatives intended to stimulate activity in the economy. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian.

Regulations covering building standards, including fire safety and wheelchair access, could be torn up in a government plan to cut costs for the construction industry and boost the economy.