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

Very nimble yesterday until the glitch.

The Chinese, Greeks. What next?

good morning dz ...... i got lucky with a hefty bounce o'night so have halved my already small position for a minuscule profit ...... out of devilment, i'll let the remainder run

Green Day !!!!!!!!!!

good morning cynic - pleased to hear it - quite expected it to bounce back the way things are so good stuff well done

fantastic day - gla

Jumped out of FTSE 100 Long too early.

still running that diddly dow long ....... have yet to decide when to bank .......

just banked at 17,732

if dow climbs to 17,800 and would be inclined to reverse as the greece issue is still to be resolved

tough call that cynic i think the real answer is close when it is good for you

easy to do claret - as long as it is profit dont kick yourself too hard

the most difficult call is after this - it suggests more recovery as breezed past certain trend levels or is this a flash in the pan!

dz - per above, i have already banked ...... am now looking for a level from which to short

china is one problem, but closer to home, the greek issue is a very long way from being resolved ....... high volatility remains the order of the day

ahhh misread - speed reading between screens lol

brain must have been asleep .... should have shorted when dow dropped through 17,686 with a bit of momentum
now down to about 17,620 so watch 17,600 or recovery back towards 17,686

a dangerous dabble long at 17,605, but again, just a small position

cut my losses at 17,567 ....... silly billy and serves me right :-)
to all intents and purposes, gave back this morning's ill-gotten gains, though i see dow has continued further south

.

within the last 15 mins, greece has submitted a new proposal, so i guess we're very slowly inching a way to some sort of fudge - sorry, new bailout

on that basis, have just gone gently long ftse at 6556 on the basis that the immediate downside is surely limited, or at least i very much hope so :-)

if i were braver (more foolhardy) would have taken a more aggressive stance and/or taken a long position on dow (17,544)

FTSE 100 taken off this morning. What to do?

well i dare say i shall be banking that very juicy o'night profit!

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just done so at 6652 and shall now wait for the euphoria to evaporate a bit

YUM! :-)

Closer ties between Athens and Moscow is likely to worry the US, which has stepped up its involvement in Greece's debt crisis

Greece has admitted for the first time it is planning a €2bn gas pipeline with Russia.

The move is likely to worry the US, which has stepped up its involvement in Greece's debt talks with international creditors over fears the cash-strapped country could drop out of the single currency and come under the influence of its Cold War rival.

Panayotis Lafazanis, Greece's energy minister, said the move would be a key part of the country's "multi-faceted" foreign policy and would create 20,000 jobs, the Financial Times reported

well done cynic on profit - also the latest greek proposal is swings & roundabouts prior to sunday...................

claret - peaks & troughs just need to get the right side - gl

dz - that pipeline news is relatively old ......

much more to the point, though greece was "forgiven" $107bn of debt in 2012 (i'm sure i have that story correct), as the situation now stands, the country cannot possibly ever repay the existing debt

if us is indeed getting seriously involved, then it would not surprise me if greece was "gifted" say a further $200bn through the backdoor - eg free funding for major infrastructure or similar