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

this site gets worse and worse
not only is posting comment slow to chronic, but i just went check the chart for dow (INDU) and it still shows yesterday's date and thus the level shown is about 100 points adrift too

hopeless!!

I'll post this - see how long it takes.

Edit - it was instant. Might be your PC or your broadband.

even if that were to be the case, and i think not, the charts are still hopeless

Re the charts, I think MAM only show live charts for when the market is open.

Lots of posts are lagging as are some charts and prices, but the problem is intermittent, so no way of knowing what's right and when.

The lagging is an ongoing problem, folks. Have a look at the BUGS
thread to see all the complaints.

US may not be open, but trading on Dow assuredly is!
Thank goodness i don't rely on these

What's happening with MAM ? i know all were complaining about the prices but now it seems to be everything .

DOW
having recovered from just above 17,900 this morning (yummy), i can't determine whether it is now consolidating at ~18,000 with a view to going higher, or just struggling a bit to keep that level

answer - doesn't care for 18,000 but called the bounce right again when it dropped to about 17,930 and am back out at 17,985

Missed the boat this morning. Possible reversal day for upside until end of week?

i follow DOW more than FTSE, but having staggered higher to 18,075 or thereabouts, it has now drifted back to 18,035

greece and NFP no doubt hold the key

Skinny....or anyone.......on the FTSE best divi yields website do you know what 'Payout Ratio' means?
http://www.topyields.nl/Top-dividend-yields-of-FTSE100.php

EDIT: Found the answer!
DEFINITION of 'Payout Ratio'
The proportion of earnings paid out as dividends to shareholders, typically expressed as a percentage. The payout ratio can also be expressed as dividends paid out as a proportion of cash flow. The payout ratio is a key financial metric used to determine the sustainability of a company’s dividend payments. A lower payout ratio is generally preferable to a higher payout ratio, with a ratio greater than 100% indicating the company is paying out more in dividends than it makes in net income.

The Payout Ratio is calculated as follows:

Payout Ratio = Dividends per Share (DPS) / Earnings per Share (EPS)

Also known as dividend payout ratio.

DEFINITION OF 'DIVIDEND PAYOUT RATIO' ?

Thanks skinny. Just looking at some of the Co's, the divi looks to be unsustainable based on the very high POR.

Yes - not something I've seen before - over to you to investigate further! :-)

The BP figure is obviously distorted by their very high litigation payouts, but the SSE figure is a bit of a worry as is Petrofac and AstraZeneca. Hmmmmmm.........

glad i had a little flutter on FTSE (6952) about 45 minutes ago :-)
should really have done so about 30 points lower, but was not sure index would hold ....

however, no great surprise, it is looking every more likely that greece will be given a plan, which they will accept, to allow greece to borrow more money from EMF - to repay earlier EMF loans (of course!)

bugger!
missed the sudden dip on on Dow and bounce had already happened in the couple of minutes i was away from my desk ..... never mind

Great moves if your the right side of them.