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

jimmy - wash your mouth out! :-))))))))))))))))))))

I was :(

:)) ... I bottom fished yesterday for a couple then realised it wasn't the bottom so looking at a couple more now .

what a great shame for that stinking eu gravy train:

'Joseph Muscat tweeted that this "doesn't help this evening's eurozone leaders' meeting" in Brussels.'

but very good for us ;

Can't wait until we are out of it ..

dow - there was a brief but not very convincing bounce from 17,500

jimmy 18082 - yes i also lurrrrrvvvvve the eu - that must be obvious LOL
:-D

seat of the pants stuff cynic - one can just smell that lovely unique odour of uncertainty and frayed nerves - hmmm yum yum

The Greeks doing a bit more than just plate smashing.

yep tsipras has the spinning bow tie and big red nose back on - fantastic - what a guy he is lol
then of course we have that other load of clowns aka eu leaders - what a perfect recipe for chaos - come on spain, portugal, italy and others and lets welcome with open arms the east european nations - just fantastic - still at least those east european nations will help keep the value of the euro down lol

blind leading the blind will always fall into a pit sadly

dz - though portugal has a socialist gov't, i'ld be very surprised if it was sucked into the greek vortex ..... though the country had to be rescued, it was never in the sort of mess that the corrupt greek gov't created, and post-salazar, the money looks to have been well spent and the place (lisbon) is thriving

meanwhile, dow trying manfully to recover from its lows and is currently back above the critical 17,600 level

either wall street is further up with the news than we are, or there is an awful lot or precautionary covering as index WAS almost unchanged at a tad below 17, 700 but has just as suddenly dumped 40 points

more dangerous than shark-infested waters!

cynic 18088 - interesting comments and you have seen lisbon very recently for yourself so know first hand what it is like - i am just saying it as the markets see it right now - i also do not think portugal is as bad as the greece debacle but that is not how others see it and they are the ones that matter - it is easy spending the money even if spent well - the problem is paying it back.............. greece has some fantastic transportation system which it lavished money that wasnt its own and many other things............ but as we all know greece will never ever be able to pay their debts back - i reckon lisbon is a nice place to visit as i am sure you will agree not criticising that at all

example of eu joke - just heard the luxembourg finance minister who was trying to advise on the greek situation - yes i am going to really listen to a nation that has a smaller budget than my local corner shop LOL! kick him out and all the other do-gooding twots who listen to him!

ha ha the dow lol - swimming in shark invested waters with a big juicy extremely rare steak attached!

portugal's debt is relatively comfortably below the critical level of 135% of gdp (i think that number is correct) so there is little or no chance of default

aye cynic not as bad as greece i was thinking a bit more out of the box and why the markets are very nervy of the potential contagion - portugal from march this year:

'Portugal’s public debt is expected to have increased by 6.6 billion in January, standing at month’s end at a total of 231.1 billion euros, the Technical Budget Support Unit said Friday in Lisbon (UTAO).

According to the Bank of Portugal, the debt ratio of general government to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in line with Maastricht guidelines, stood at 128.7 percent in 2014, more than in 2013 (128 percent) and more than the target set by the government for the last year, which was 127.2 percent of GDP.'

so portugese debt already increasing..............this is without the 'invisible variables'........

i have a cunning plan!!........................... i am going to personally apply to join the eu and ask them if they can lend me a few hundred billion euros to waste on anything i like :-))

i do have a caveat to them lending me the money though - that i never ever have to pay them back, in return i will vote for another east european country to join the eu and another luxembourg minister to advise the whole of the eu on straight bananas! :-)

like betting on indices? :-)

;

i see DOW closed +93 with cash FTSE up about 80
if you have the time and concentration, there must be many shekels to rake in, but the way the market is moving, imo it's impossible to gauge

i guess there's a resolution coming, but it's a dangerous assumption
paddle in the markets only if you have steel-capped boots :-)