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

Reckon the DOW has some catching up to do Cynic: the FTSE and other European Indices tanked on Friday, whereas the DOW recovered much of what it had lost - that's my theory anyway.

"

Thanks for that Skinny :)

GBP BRC Retail Sales Monitor y/y 1.9% previous 2.7%

GBP RICS House Price Balance -1% -5% -7%

Cold weather slows UK retail sales growth in March - BRC

LONDON | Tue Apr 9, 2013 12:18am BST

(Reuters) - Growth in British retail sales slowed last month despite a boost from an early Easter, as unseasonably cold weather hurt demand for summer clothes and shoes, industry data showed on Tuesday.

The British Retail Consortium said retail sales values rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier on a like-for-like measure, which strips out changes in stores' floor space and is favoured by equity analysts. That compared with a 2.7 percent increase in February.

EUR German Trade Balance 17.1B 16.2B 15.6B

JPY Prelim Machine Tool Orders y/y -21.6% previous -21.5%

EUR French Gov Budget Balance -27.1B previous -12.8B

EUR French Trade Balance -6.0B -5.3B -5.7B

What a surge on the DOW last night - seems to have started going up just after I went out late afternoon... Ah well, my shorts are still there, having not been stopped out, so I shall have to think what to do next.

I got filled last night (short) @6,316, which I'm going to leave for now.

I'm just staying put, too.

Apparently volume in the US was light yesterday - so that surge we saw (because of Alcoa's results) may not last;

"A lot of the momentum we had in the first quarter was based on improving economic news, and the jobs report really took the wind out of our sails," said Dunigan, who helps oversee $116 billion in assets. "We're still trying to sift through what that means for our prospects going forward." Volume was light, with about 5.11 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, well below the daily average so far this year of about 6.48 billion shares."

CHF CPI m/m 0.2% 0.3% 0.3%

CHF Retail Sales y/y 2.4% 2.9% 2.0%

GBP Manufacturing Production m/m 0.8% 0.4% -1.5%

GBP Trade Balance -9.4B -8.7B -8.2B

GBP Industrial Production m/m 1.0% 0.4% -1.2%

GBP 10-y Bond Auction 1.73|1.7 previous 2.15|2.3

I seem to have lost a post from yesterday - never mind

Still long on my gold from 1550. Lost some of my profit yesterdaY - but staying long for time being

Also maintaining my long on FTSE (since 6260) but have moved my stop up to 6290 as momentum seems to be waining

Well done Hilary on your GBJ close.. Its begining to look like a shorters market, all that money in extreme QE, no discernable increase in lending to the non-banking sector! The Tankan survey shows industrial output contracting by 11% now year on year with industrial data showing falling factory gate prices and companies still laying off workers.

well I am sticking with my longs for the time being !!

I was limited out +16, now looking to go short again.

I would hold of a bit - momentum is in the ascendancy - BWDIK

CAD Housing Starts 184K 176K 178K

CAD Building Permits m/m 1.7% 3.7% 1.7%

Fitch has downgraded China to A+...... does anybody care? only those journos waiting to emphasise the UK being downgraded.

at least uk is nowhere near as corrupt as china!

Still Long on FTSE - upped stops to 6300 and still running my gold long with a stop of 1565