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

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.

Trading bounce, imo, but still a little more downside to come. 'Mass buying tomorrow'......short term, imo, though certainly worth looking at the income paying stocks as a safe haven.

I have oiled the hinges on me wallet.

oh that one ... you forget i'm a holder too

7.40am and -75 at present

those with strong nerves (not me), could already have made a good turn on both dow and ftse ...... i shall probably just sit like a rabbit in the headlights

Very easy to do today as it is impossible to know how the swings are going to happen.

Very high chance of being burnt today!

fully concur ..... with gold up $60 it would be nice to think that mining shares at least will buck the trend, but on recent record, fat chance

pretty much en passant, i note that cash dow dropped to the key 11160 - indeed a bit below - and has now bounced firmly back above it for the second time (did so during normal US trading on friday)