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

Stocks set to back off record highs

U.S. stock futures were slipping Monday, showing that Wall Street could be ready to take a break from last week's record-breaking rally.

After a week of record highs and a better-than-expected jobs report, investors will have little corporate or economic news to digest.

FTSE @ 6497 - time to go short me thinks

Small short @6,496

So what caused that quick jump?
Am short from 6486 and watching to see what happens from here.
TT

One in four Germans would back anti-euro party

(Reuters) - One in four Germans would be ready to vote in September's federal election for a party that wants to quit the euro, according to an opinion poll published on Monday that highlights German unease over the costs of the euro zone crisis.

Germany's mainstream parties remain solidly pro-euro despite grumbling over bailouts of countries such as Greece. A German taboo on nationalism, rooted in atonement for the crimes of the Nazi era, has helped to muffle eurosceptic voices.

But the poll conducted by TNS-Emnid for the weekly Focus magazine showed 26 percent of Germans would consider backing a party that wanted to take Germany out of the euro and as many as four in 10 Germans in the 40-49 age bracket would do so.

I can't find anything obvious TT.

1hr FTSE 100 chart, I'm also running short today two bets in place...

DAX daily

Daily DOW

Daily Gold for those trading it.. Is it about to stage a rally on a reverse sell equities and back into commodities move... I hope so...

.me too - as I am long on gold

CFDs at IG offer contracts of £1 per $1 move ..... but gold rarely moves more than say $10 in a day, so that sounds somewhat strange - i.e. it's a minuscule contract ..... think i'll double-check!

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i did, and the above is spot on to make a bad pun

Are the Greeks due another bailout soon?
Italy's elections?
Or just profit taking in USA?

Am looking for any reason for a fall in ftse100 in next two months.

"sell in may and go away" ..... is that a good enough reason for you?
or you may prefer to short once (if) dow reaches 14,545

.......of course, don't forget to re-invest on St. Ledger day!

Is this a trick question "Am looking for any reason for a fall in ftse100 in next two months." ?? If not maybe start by spending a few hours on bloomberg and forbes..

300pts+ fall.

Conflict between China and Japan over the disputed islands, or an escalation of the European debt problems could spur a fall. In the US if the banking system was made to address its bad debts we'd see a system requiring a bailout. This would act like a giant mop against the mass increase in money..

Or North Korea.

personally, i expect to wait for 14,545 .... however, if i go travelling, may lighten considerably beforehand