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

As long as the USA do not get rated as junk. It seems once as a country hits the slippery slope the down grades move fast. Hope they prove me wrong.

Saudi stock market first to plunge on S&P downgrade




15:28, Saturday 6 August 2011

Saudi Arabia's stock market dropped 5.46pc on Saturday as it became the first exchange to react to the historic US credit downgrade.Not open on the Thurs and Fri before, may not be to bad. Just catching up .

Thanks cynic.

dreamboat - disturbing it's true, but it is the reaction of the larger f/e markets that will give the clue for monday, though i confess i find it hard to be sanguine about it ...... so glad i bit a very hard bullet (several actually) on friday morning, though i made a bit back on the indices in the evening, and of course banked a very nice profit on my asc short

Cynic, There is a lot of shi- stirring going on by these credit agencies. Buffet (not sure about spelling) thinks they have it wrong. The other two have stayed with the AAA
rating. Someone is right.

Warren Buffett

it doesn't matter who's right or wrong; it's market perception and sentiment that are the key ...... my own view is that the eurozone problems are very much more important

Sadly America will dictate to an extent, lets see. Not looking good for a few years+
I'm braced for Monday. It may hurt.

On tonights news China is livid with the USA. Sounds like china will have the whip and
America had better listen.

with eurozone problem looking worse by the hour, i really do fear the worst and am fast concluding that the only thing to do is to liquidate or go short

Some good news.



French AAA rating stable - S&P




8:22, Sunday 7 August 2011

PARIS (Reuters) - France's AAA rating is stable, ratings agency Standard and Poor's chief European economist Jean-Michel Six told France Inter radio.

"The French rating is stable," Six (SNP: ^SIXY - news) said.

Six said that political leadership and good governance are a major factor in ratings agencies' deliberations about rating reviews

All sounds like bad school reports to me....I thought that a pupil would be pretty chuffed with a AA+ plus or whatever you call it......myself I'm more used to a D minus or somewhere around that mark....by the way anybody have all the ratings that there are .....I think that it ranges from AAA down to C.....I've never seen the whole ratings board anywhere....

Quite a system required field.



Corporate credit ratingsMain article: Bond credit rating
The credit rating of a corporation is a financial indicator to potential investors of debt securities such as bonds. Credit rating is usually of a financial instrument such as a bond, rather than the whole corporation. These are assigned by credit rating agencies such as A.M. Best, Dun & Bradstreet, Standard & Poor's, Moody's or Fitch Ratings and have letter designations such as A, B, C. The Standard & Poor's rating scale is as follows, from excellent to poor: AAA, AA+, AA, AA-, A+, A, A-, BBB+, BBB, BBB-, BB+, BB, BB-, B+, B, B-, CCC+, CCC, CCC-, CC, C, D. Anything lower than a BBB- rating is considered a speculative or junk bond.[3] The Moody's rating system is similar in concept but the naming is a little different. It is as follows, from excellent to poor: Aaa, Aa1, Aa2, Aa3, A1, A2, A3, Baa1, Baa2, Baa3, Ba1, Ba2, Ba3, B1, B2, B3, Caa1, Caa2, Caa3, Ca, C. A.M. Best rates from excellent to poor in the following manner: A++, A+, A, A-, B++, B+, B, B-, C++, C+, C, C-, D, E, F, and S. The CTRISKS rating system is as follows: CT3A, CT2A, CT1A, CT3B, CT2B, CT1B, CT3C, CT2C and CT1C. All these CTRISKS grades are mapped to one-year probability of default.

I wonder if there will be a lift on Monday. Its been talked about for weeks, could it have been priced in the fall last week? Now its done.

USA has room for 8 more down grades before classed as junk.

i suspect that with some nerve, nimble fingers and lack of greed, there could be money to be made tomorrow, especially on the indices .... whether or not i shall have any of the above is another story

cynic,RRl. Sorry to spoil your Sunday.lol

what is RRI?

RRL - That shit company you keep telling me about.

Reading the news,there will be a mass of buying tomorrow. Before the cheap deals go.