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

DOW give up after europe's concerns and want to see believe from there so europe's markets leading a pack..amazing

We will be ok after france downgrade.

We will be ok after france downgrade.

rally totally expunged - not good

5000 looking soggy again!

yup. Long FTSE again @ 4999 and Dow @ 10775

with pretty tight stops and not too much exposure i hope

out Dow +50 and some UKX +30

keeping eyes wide open, thanks Cyners

.

out more UKX +40

Dvu

Bzck in UKX @ 4957 and Dow @ 10642
HOC @ 428

out DOW @ 10,728 +86 and some UKX +40 :-)

Off out shortly - I've left a buy in @4800 (with a stop).

Flippin' 'eck! Wasn't DOW +170 earlier on this morning??? Now -80. I think we are now blaming the french banks for current weakness, due to their writedowns of greek debt.

Number of people filing for initial jobless claims falls 7,000 to 395,000 in the latest week, first time below 400,000 in 4 months.

but will the markets respond? ...... i'm afraid i rather doubt it

I think the trade balance deficit of $53.07B against the Consensus of $48.0B - highest since October 2008 might weigh!

I Tink the yanks are off there heads, will rally :O)

Chris - you are probably right :-)