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

More of a corker than a porker cynic!

Bet you got legs right up to your b.//,..//; sorry mrs came in.,.

Lol ...

Time for some wine and relaxation. FTSE shorts will do nicely in the coming week I reckon, though I'll not be able to keep my eye on all the excitement on Monday!

is that because you'll sqeezing yourself into those skinny bright red shorts and the tiniest bright red bikini top...................................... cold shower needed..

decline to comment i think!

lol....you seen it all before......i know
aside this, a down day to come monday cynic??

of course .... surely couldn't be otherwise

Incredible foresight from a Hedge Fund (time to stock up on chocolate?):
"A British hedge fund manager has been identified as the buyer behind one of the largest single purchases of cocoa beans ever recorded.

Anthony Ward, the manager of the Armajaro Holdings fund, last week paid 658m to buy 241,000 tons of cocoa beans, equal to the whole supply for Europe and enough to make 5.3bn standard chocolate bars.

In an even more unusual move, the fund has taken physical delivery of the beans, which are sitting in warehouses in the UK, Netherlands and Germany. Actual delivery only normally occurs in a fraction of commodity deals.

Traders said the purchase, the largest single buy in 14 years, could force up the price of chocolate as the price of cocoa, one of the main ingredients, leapt to over 2,700 per ton, its highest price since 1977.

Wards dealing echoes a similar move eight years ago when he made a fortune buying 204,000 tons of cocoa when supply was limited. The price subsequently soared netting him an estimated 40m in two months."

Interesting. The COCO (standard) and LCOC (leveraged) ETC's track the price of cocoa.

the markets have inexplicably turned pretty sour - my man in the city also did not know why as there was no news of note .... no doubt all will be revealed in due course

the following i suppose .....

11:13, Tuesday 20 July 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares extended falls on Tuesday morning (NASDAQ: TUES - news) , with banks lower, after Hungary sold less of its debt than expected, and ahead of results from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) before Wall Street opens.


i wonder what the fear is re GS ... perhaps God has decided they are no longer His second favourite son

Futures in US a few minutes ago were:

FUTURES 10154.43 9972.0 -88.00

FUTURES FAIR VALUE (46.43) 10106.43 9972.0 -134.43


I'm not sure of the difference between 'futures' and 'futures fair value' but in any case a very negative picture!

This could be also weighing on the banking sector - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-19/germany-s-hypo-real-estate-is-said-to-fail-eu-stress-test-on-bank-capital.html

knowing GS's undisputed record for honesty, perhaps they have been selling short heavily in the knowledge that their figures will be far worse than anticipated .... see below

Current expectations are for the company to earn just under $1.3 billion, or $2 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. That's down 64% from the $3.4 billion it earned a year ago.

GS numbers look vile .... earnings just $613m = down 82%

Not great news on the housing front either:

US housing starts hit their lowest level in eight months in June, further evidence the economy lost momentum in the second quarter, but a rise in permits offered hope that homebuilding was poised to pick up.

'The Commerce Department said Tuesday housing starts dropped 5.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000 units, the lowest since October. It was the second straight month of declines in groundbreaking activity and was well below market expectations for a 580,000-unit rate.

Toya

I hope this helps.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5895543_dow-futures-fair-value-calculated_.html

That's very helpful indeed - many thanks ShareCruiser!

I've been listening to Ben Bernanke's testimony on Monetary Policy since 7pm this evening - still going on. It's been very interesting (and to a certain extent profitable) to watch the markets move at the same time - took a real dive!

It's all down to BB using the words 'unexpected & uncertain'. Once he failed to allay the fears that the worst was over, the DOW headed downwards.

Yes - quite marked reaction on the chart to particular words! It'll be interesting to see which way the DOW will travel tomorrow.