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 Skinny

Traders in USA using Bloomberg TV because data streams down - per...Bloomberg TV interview on trading floor. Any truth, or an advert for the station?

Several NYC datacentres were affected by Sandy and several Forex brokers lost their price feeds for a while so it's quite probable that there was an issue. But..... that all seemed to happen onwards of about 3am on Tuesday morning and it was fixed within 12 hours, so Bloomers are probably ramping their own station, what with Mikey being mayor of NYC and all.

Chicago PMI 49.9 consensus 51.0 previous 49.7

hilary - thanks.

U.S. Retail Sales Off 1.6% in First 4 Weeks of Oct vs. Sep

National chain-store sales fell 1.6% in the first four weeks of October from the same period in September, according to Redbook Research Inc.'s latest indicator, released Wednesday. The index's fall compares with a targeted 1.4% decline. The Johnson Redbook Index, an indicator of performance in U.S. retail sales, also showed that seasonally adjusted sales for the period were up 1.6% from the same period in 2011, compared with a 1.9% targeted gain. Redbook said stores were reporting improved sales for the latest week, supported by Halloween shopping and stocking up ahead of Hurricane Sandy. The hurricane helped certain retailers as customers made a run on food, water, batteries and other emergency supplies, ramping up business at stores which stock these kinds of staples. Discount stores were the main beneficiaries, and their sales ran mostly ahead of plan over the week. Sales for the week rose 1.8% year-over-year.

Thanks for all the info here guys! I decided to go short DOW from 13170 and will see what happens

Happy days shorting Wall St, nearly covered my Rockhopper long unrealised losses!!

http://rt16.it-finance.com/FinSpreadsFlash/showimage.phtml?id=f406b00fde457958585c240809d227e22fa51fb6633066e52d5f369639e11c60&type=png

Thats me out 13107, happy to bank a decent profit, skinny could you turn the above into a chart please.

Thankyou skinny, the 15 min chart above, green dotted lines show where I believe support to be, looking at the last 40 mins these lines are true. Anyway for those still in good luck and happy Halloween..!

Scott Forstall, one of the most visible faces of Apple in the wake of Steve Jobs' death, is leaving the company in a surprise shakeup at the head of Apple' ranks.

Forstall, a senior vice president in charge of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS, will act as an adviser to CEO Tim Cook until departing some time next year, according to a news release from the company.

As the man behind the system that ran Apple's industry-changing iPhone and iPad, Forstall had been considered a favorite to replace Jobs as CEO after Jobs' death last October. More recently, Apple observers pegged Forstall, 43, as the next in line behind Cook.

Along with marketing chief Phil Schiller and design guru Jonathan Ive, Forstall anchored the company's top tier of executives, frequently speaking at Apple's heralded product unveilings to showcase the ins and outs of operating-system upgrades.

Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/science_tech/scott-forstall-apple-aapl-shakeup-why-apple-vice-president-is-leaving-the-company#ixzz2AtRmzmvW

Well not the most sensible trade I've ever done, but I've closed @13,060 for +60.

I'm now tempted to go long - time for tea I think!

I've just closed at 13063, as well - I'm free to go out and play hurray!

Have fun - I'm off to the Indigo tonight to see Paul Carrack.

Profit is profit Skinny... I don't have the time to follow tonight, tommorrow is another day and albeit I'm sure safer bets will emerge. Telecoms over the pond set for a knock, looks like the bandwagon to be on, will have a look in the morning.

Verizon Communications Inc. Maybe a nice short.

Today is a great example why opposite views can still make de money.

I stuck with my hunch that the Dow was a long today until about 1pm. +50 pts too good not to bank a profit and unsure what the US would do at the open. So I was right initially, wrong at the moment and only time will tell if a medium term bullish approach is correct or not.

i don't think any sell-off will have a long life ..... the perception now is that world economies are recovering (i have been saying that for a while - increasing chemical shipments), and the eurozone probs are now relegated to the backburner

Correct Cynic.

My own view is that resumption of the uptrend will kick off again soon. There will probably be lower lows before that happens but once all the bears have been wiped out, we'll be off up again. Usual routine, woe is us, markets in terminal decline and then all will be well in the world again.