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

Debating a long on Wall St, 12540 support I think will hold..

I'm not so sure Shortie - but you may well be right. I'm not risking it

tricky innit :-)

Sure is, I'm not a fan of trading minute charts. There's so many channels at the moment crossing direction. The below Wall St 15 min chart is what I'm working off.

http://rt16.it-finance.com/FinSpreadsFlash/showimage.phtml?id=e26ce26c91a21ff4b59edf4afa2c007690727dbab350db8630cb88dfee7cfb9e&type=png

If support does hold, 5690 would be support for FTSE...

http://rt16.it-finance.com/FinSpreadsFlash/showimage.phtml?id=ad7bc35c1a5d98527e8a6b491f613a63be930ba69c2d5b9bf581332380e2ce55&type=png

Same chart but a daily showing where I get the support line from, if it breaks then 12020 is the next level.

Ouch!

Philly Fed Manufacturing Index -10.7 consensus 1.1 previous 5.7

and the market has shrugged its shoulders, perhaps on the basis that a DCB is merited if nothing else

Well today I feel I know even less than normal!

your dow long was the correct call - so far ...... but the next and much harder question is how far do you let it run

"The Philly Fed blamed the disruptive effects of Hurricane Sandy ... on the negative reading".

This could be why the DOW is still hovering around

how curious that FB is effectively unchanged

FB indicators suggest buying, not for me though on current earnings, I still think way overvalued...

DOW - I've not actuly taken a position yet, still debating a long postion but yet to commit.

I've just added some BP - surely some upside now!

You'd think so being the amount they've set aside already. Might add to my equity holding in them also.

I had a little slide down a 50-point short DOW this evening, after the Bernanke speech, but have closed it now because I've no idea what will happen next - and tomorrow Obama and Boehner will set out their stalls, so the DOW will likely swing about a bit.

Ah Skinny - just seen your latest pic above - lovely!!!

Japanese bond issue seems to have perked up the asian markets, so hoping for a good end to the week. Am currently watching screen in Chennai, so having to source info from CNN, but along with BP they seem to think European markets should be in the blue, notwithstanding the Eurozone double dip.

AAPL continues it's decline, down another 2.1% - Don't you love hindsight!