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

6400 broken and holding though not by a a great deal ..... tomorrow may be interesting :-)

Had a short on the FTSE from 6430 ,although not really following the DOW/DAX/CAC

following the slump late in usa following CA shootings and the knock-on effect for FTSE, worth noting that cash FTSE has limped back above 6400

FTSE not following the others again today .

well it was down about 35 late last night and now more-or-less b/e and comfortably above 6400 once more
prob is the balance in the index, so if you're brave enough, FTSE 250 may be the one to back

Aren't we waiting for the ECB today? Direction may come from Draghi. (Super Mario to the rescue!...Bloomberg)
Also ex-divi day in the UK......Aviva I think one of the big boys.

what have i missed?
did draghi disappoint or is it people taking cover b4hand?

Gone mental ,great fun .

all markets gone sharply south i see

DOW now dropped to important 17,700 level and broken as i write

ECB decision:
"The European Central Bank cut a key interest rate on Thursday (cut its deposit rate by 0.1pp to -0.3pc) and announced an extension of its monthly asset purchases but the euro leapt higher as financial markets signalled they had been expecting yet more stimulus.

Delving deeper into the bank's monetary toolbox, ECB chief Mario Draghi said the bank would not only include euro-denominated regional and local debt in its purchases but would also look to reinvest principal payments in the scheme.

"This will contribute both to favourable liquidity conditions and to an appropriate monetary policy stance," Draghi told a news conference, without saying how much that could add to overall purchases currently hitting 60 billion euros a month.

He said the ECB did not add to its monthly asset purchase programme because extending the scheme and reinvesting proceeds were deemed sufficient.

"Our asset purchase programme is flexible. It can always be adjusted. We decided the extension of our horizon and especially the re-investment of principal would be sufficient," he said.

Draghi said the quantitative easing asset-buying programme would continue "until the end of March 2017 or beyond if necessary", he added, spelling out that the central bank's priority of hitting a medium-term target of inflation at just under two percent.

It had been due to end around September 2016."

Roll on the NFP tomorrow and then get the week over.

haven't really been able to follow, but markets may well be badly unsettled by the news that no EU deal on the table before end year
add to that ever increasing immigration, and the chances of eu being rejected in the referendum must surely be growing

Cheer up Manuel, you are supposed to be on holiday!

quite glad i'm semi out of circulation as it's stopped me being too rash
have been lucky with a couple of small DOW longs this evening, but would rather indices didn't collapse with almost no warning or reason

crikey
DOW now down 300 to 17,425 and cash FTSE showing -90 to 6,200

it'll need to be swimming pool never mind a bath to hold all the blood unless there's a sudden but unlikely reversal

Carnage !!!!

Here's one take on it. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-set-to-rise-on-hopes-for-ecb-stimulus-2015-12-03?siteid=yhoof2

well stan, it sure got that one wrong ..... i'm sure there should be a mccluskey / corbyn parallel joke to be had there somewhere as well :-)

=============

at least wall street recovered a fair amount b4 close and o'night, but likely to be a very shivery day today in london, especially at the open

As Stan said earlier, Non Farm Payrolls from the US at 13.30 hrs GMT should give direction one way or the other this afternoon.