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

cynic there is no alternative, what's the fuss all about?

yes there is; they can let greece go hang, but i concur that is most unlikely as the repercussions would be almost unthinkable ..... whether euro(zone) will have quite the same form as today in 10 years or even 5 years time, is much more questionable - thank goodness uk is not part of it

jkd - you may well be right; in that case after all western markets have shut shop

Greece: Athens faces moment of truth, EU's Barroso says

cynic problem solved reality has kicked arse!

now start the really tough bits for greece

watch the price of oil

Brent Crude.

Grim day FTSE & DOW. As I don't s/b, have had to sit on hands & watch tennis instead!

That FED blokes fault again.

and an amazing late turnaround on dow, so finish only -60 and london now predicting to open +60

Yes amazing - I've just closed @5743 +63.

Oil price drops on reserve sale

The price of oil has fallen after the International Energy Agency said that its members will sell some of their reserves on the world market.

Brent crude ended Thursday trading down $6.95 to $107.26, a four-month low. US light crude fell by $4.39 to settle at $91.02.

The IEA says the move is in response to the disruption in supplies caused by the Libyan conflict.

It plans to release an extra 60 million barrels of oil on to the world market.

I've been short twice this morning - from 5761 - 5746 +15 and just stopped 5763 - 5735 + 28.

In fact when the reserves are used up : this move could support the price of crude because there will be precious little room for increasing production.....so we could see a firming of the oilie share prices, not a drop as perhaps expected by many !.

Intraday Chart.

or here (with occasional annoying popup) Brent Crude.

10/point skinny??

Pint a point :-)

Is that a 'Fancy pint of foreign fizz' or a 'real pint for real men'?

London Pride or Youngs (ordinary these days) - used to love the Special.