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

i have gone modestly long ftse at 5339 but shall consider taking profit at 5400 and shall almost certainly do so at 5435

Gold price zooming!

gosh, so it is ..... i wonder what brought that on? ..... further uncertainty about eurozone? ..... unlikely, or it would have happened a few days ago

shut down my ftse long .... total bloodbath continues on wall street (-250 @ 10615) which must surely bring further massacres in london tomorrow ...... only bright spot is gold (+$23 @ $1197) .... oil continues to tumble (now -$3.00 @ 8140)

Looks like Europe is the thorn in the side again:
CNN -""There's no question that Europe and Greece and specifically the fear of contagion is what's driving the market lower near term," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Investments.

"Having said that, we also have to be cognizant that the market was due for a pullback at a minimum, and possibly a correction," he said.

He noted that the market hasn't had a correction - technically defined as a selloff of 10% on a closing basis - for at least 14 months".

look at it now!!!! down 410 as we speak

it was down 800 (no misprint) a few seconds ago

Down 700 , also check out GBP !!

If you were short DOW this time cynic you've had it off.

Was 1000 down for a second, do rogue trades do this or just seriously bad news ?

well i wasn't and frankly, this is terrifying even if dow now down ONLY 420

You'd need the handspeed of Sugar Ray Leonard just to work the key pad

King Hell

Knowing the US it will finish up :-))

you wouldn't be able to jimmy - and i'm serious

9872 low

Shit where did I put those sleeping pills!

ravey :-) ........cynic i believe you.

Osama having a street fight with Obama and he was ahead on points but Obama's coming back in to it . It must be something llike that .

Job to understand all this.....