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

By Barbara Kollmeyer and Michael Kitchen U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a sharply lower open for Wall Street on Monday as Senate leaders remained deadlocked over a deal to raise the nation's debt limit, due to a clash over previously passed budget cuts known as the sequester. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 91 points, or 0.6%, to 15084, while those for the S&P 500 fell 11.30 points, or 0.7%, to 1687.70. Nasdaq futures traded down 14 points, or 0.4%, to 3211.50. With no economic data or major earnings on the calendar for Monday, which is also Columbus Day, investors were left to dwell on the weekend's political action, or inaction as some were seeing it. All three futures were off much sharper lows that came out of Asian trading hours, as news trickled out that Democratic Senate leaders were demanding that a debt-limit deal not lock in further sequester cuts. These are due to take effect next year. "With three days to go before the U.S. Treasury technically runs out of cash to pay the bills, traders are now fearing the worst-case default scenario being played out," said Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital said in a note. "Although many dismiss it as unlikely, with hopes that U.S. lawmakers will strike an 11th-hour deal, traders are showing reluctance to take risks as we head into the deadline on the 17th of October." The New York Times said that Democrats wanted the sequester, passed into law as part of the deal resolving the last debt-limit impasse, to last only through mid-November. The Wall Street Journal quoted Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell as saying, "Senate Republicans will not accept anything that undoes these cuts." The latest snag to efforts for an agreement came as McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, negotiated Sunday, with just four days before the U.S. administration expects to run out of funds to meet its obligations. Much of the U.S. government remains shut down for the 13th day, with a bill to restore funding for operations seen as likely to feature in any deal. "The picture that is emerging is of the Democrats pressing their political advantage to secure further concessions, knowing that public opinion is turning sharply against the Republicans," said Alvin Tan, foreign exchange analyst at Societe Generale, in a note. "Nonetheless, given the Republicans' plummeting approval ratings, we remain confident that a deal on the debt ceiling will be reached before a Treasury default." International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned the combination of the U.S. shutdown, combined with a default on the debt would cause "massive disruption the world over," speaking in an interview on NBC News's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday. Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said the investment bank estimates real growth in the gross domestic product will see a 0.3 percentage point hit in the fourth quarter, based on the shutdown so far and mostly due to federal employee furloughs. In his comments, given in a note to investors published late Friday, he said the effect will be almost entirely reversed in the first quarter of 2014. In overseas markets, Europe stocks fell after the release of a weak batch of economic data out of China and as U.S. politicians struggled to make headway on a deal. In Asia, stocks fell for the same reasons. Exports from China fell 0.3% in September from the year-earlier period, marking the weakest performance in three months. Within other assets early Monday, December Comex gold futures rose nearly $7 to $1,274.90. The ICE dollar index--a measure of the greenback's strength against six rivals--was at 80.358, down from 80.375 late Friday in North America.

dow is a bit twitchy this morning
however, as it is 99.7% certain that a deal will indeed be struck, finding the long entry point is the question

Deal or No Deal I'm not going to go long on the DOW, I will however wait and play short when I'm ready.

May also go short GBP/USD, EUR/USD...

Yep - I'm short again (FTSE).

WSJ Washington Wire‏@WSJwashington5m
House could vote as soon as today on Senate deal with changes -- GOP lawmaker (1/2) #shutdown #debtceiling

Jake Sherman‏@JakeSherman13m
The vote on the HOUSE PLAN will be TONIGHT.

I'm rolling FTSE shorts Skinny from last week.

Shortie - I'm much the same - I got out of jail free yesterday morning when I reduced by 75% - have increased again today @6,565.

I also took a profit Sunday night when the FTSE dipped. Debated a further position also at 6560 but didn't as I'm happy with my current risk exposure.

Its quite blatant how one SB co quotes out of hours index numbers (compared to other company quotes) if you are in a position - especially when, as was the case yesterday morning - it moved down quite dramatically before the market opened.

At about 6614 I'll consider another short when the top of the range is hit.



The spread increases out of hours though!

GBP/USD 1HR

Yes - I know - but out of hours, comparing comapinies A & B quotes when you are short/long with A is quite obvious - I guess at the end of the day they are only bookies and can decide how they make the book.

DOW Daily


Sometimes out of hours numbers works to your advantage, other times they don't.

Shortie,

Your IT-Finance STC indi looks well dodgy to me. The plot certainly shouldn't look like that.

Shouldn't have included it on the above DOW daily.

depending on how quick on the trigger you are, for the dow is whizzing around all over the place, i'ld be very nervous (a) of being short and (b) of placing any stop position

my guess is that the time to short will be AFTER the vote, especially if there is some kind of resolution

maitate‏@maitate22m
ベイナーはよ仕事しろ、“@zerohedge: WHITE HOUSE REJECTS HOUSE REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL”

Peter Nicholas‏@PeterNicholas325m
White House opposes plan emerging from the House.
Calls proposal an attempt "to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans"

Retweeted by Wall Street Journal