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

cheers

Well done to all those who called this carnage correctly. I was all square over weekend as I don't like holding over weekends. Going to sit this morning out and see what happens when Wall Street opens.

my inclination would be to go short again around present levels, but as i'm flitting here there and everywhere - aka being on hol - i shall resist the temptation

so what next?
clearly nothing is any clearer than it was and it is unlikely that any silver bullet will magically appear before this referendum result is known

logically, the greeks probably OUGHT to vote to accept the EU proposals, but then i am not in the position of already suffering the current consequences

however, even i think the EU proposals stink and i cannot see that they will really ameliorate greece's plight in the foreseeable future

of course, the fact of the matter is that greece is worse than broke, so the only real way to help would be for IMF to write-off most if not all of the debt
will that happen?
who knows?

The Greeks have already been to see the Russians and I wonder if the Eurozone will ultimately allow the Greeks to exit, with the possibility of a foreign power gaining a political and financial foot into the backdoor of Europe, if they haven't already done so. Greece is going to need financial assistance from somewhere as the Drachma will be virtually worthless if reintroduced. My gut feeling is that Europe will offer yet another solution which the Greeks will have to accept......yet again.

the russkies want a gas pipeline through turkey and greece .... perhaps this by-passes ukraine but i'm nor sure not of the significance

the russkies would also (for sure) like a naval base in the med

it follows that the rest of the "west" would like to be shot of tsipras and his far-left gov't (surprised fred isn't offering his expertise and funding), so all sorts of shenanigans are likely to come into play ....... none of which will give the markets much comfort

I wish I could run my credit card the way the Greeks are running their finances!
I'm sure if I said to Mastercard, can I borrow more money as I can use that to pay the original debt, they would cut off my credit. Sadly I don't have a strategic holiday pad in the Med to horse trade with!

dow heading south once more, dragging cash ftse with it

dow currently 17,712 so next stop is 17,686 from where one may see a bounce once more

and so it has and it has, but for how long and to where?
if we knew that, we wouldn't be pissing about :-) ....... however, 17,755 is not a bad target from which to short again

Manuel,

Post 17998.

A conflicting opinion to your neo-fascist view of the world is probably beyond you capacity to contemplate.

You have the ability to price of much, but the value of very little.

.

fred - i know your value well and that you place too great a price on it

since i adjourned for dinner, dow has shut for the night and i see tumbled even further without, i think, bouncing back to anywhere near 17,755

trend must surely remain south, but opening a position to run o'night is too scary an option for me

Had a breather from Trading yesterday. Not in correct frame of mind.

IG can't log you in this morning ,i bet there are some angry folk out there..

yum - more saaaaarfff today and not unexpected - also the imf is under pressure from non eu members who are 'annoyed' that the imf have done such a large 'favour' to euro zone whilst ignoring non euro areas in comparisson - there is annoyance amongst china, india, brazil to name a few that so much has gone into a non euro area and the loan will very likely / almost certainly go sour :-)

beware a greek bearing............................. shat! :-)

good idea claret if you feel like that - atb

jimmy - it's back on line

dz - being in unusually cynical frame of mind, i am inclined to believe some very dirty politics are afoot to "depose" tsipras and his crew and to get someone more malleable on board
once that is done, there can be all sorts of skullduggery whereby a huge slab of debt is actually or effectively written off, leaving greece with an affordable rump to repay - ie a rump that represents <130% of gdp

hilary - you usually have something more insightful and intelligent to say, so what's your view?

you are right to be cynical - cynic :-)

almost certainly something similar to that will be / is happening - this has gone truly global and stirring up a hornets nest, and to say t stupid as has ruffled a few feathers would be an understatement to say the least - and no one in the west wants the russians to get a strong foothold via greece although it is rumoured stuff is happening behind closed doors ; what is working in t stupid as favour though is the underlying greek dislike of the germans -i dont care if that isnt pc - it is a simple fact......................

also t stupid as was seen getting ready for work earlier this morning - he was putting on his big plastic red nose, size 20 shoes and spinning bow tie :-D

dont forget to keep an eye on some of those other 'duffers' such as spain, italy, portugal et al ;

lastly - bitcoins lol!

i confess i have no idea what bitcoins actually are .... to me, they sound like something totally imaginary like emperor's new clothes with no actual value at all

===========

i now have very modest short positions in both ftse (already in the money) and dow (just out of the money)

i'll try not to get too greedy, but confess i cannot see any reasons to go long this week, though no doubt i'll be proved badly wrong