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

Are we there yet.

21 million in RBS auction.

General consensus seems to be that there is still more bad economic news to come, particularly in the eurozone (though I see The Daily Mail apologised for it's spurious report on SocGen being in trouble).

what does the Daily Mail know about whether Soc Gen is in trouble or not, Soc Gen was always known as the "gung ho" bank, draw your own conclusions.

H&S on the daily.

Beware of a trap!

the ECB appears to be putting its money where its mouth is!

Most of my screen red (SBT one exception) but looks like it may stay that way this afternoon with the DOW looking bleak.

99% certain to be a "clunk" day .... Q is, just how bad?

some good news from across the pond at least

Wal-Mart second-quarter income rises 5.7% to $3.8 billion, sales up 5.5% to $108.6 billion, full-year earnings guidance raised.

Sl strong today ex dividend tomorrow 5.96%.

US industrial output up 0.9% in July. Auto sector rebounds.

was listening to Buffett interview and one's buying more equities and says that this is not going to double dip...

FTSE 250 took quite a hit, though FTSE 100 ended slightly up in the end.

Things are getting seriously complicated! Reasons for current market downtrend:
"Outside of the recession, the Financials short ban did not really trigger any response until today/tomorow (expiry day). - In short, People can't roll their EuroStoxx shorts (expiry tomorrow), especially in the restricted stocks as regulator is saying they are New short positions, the same for the DAX components too & therefore, not allowable. - Then throw in the the fact that the SX5E/DAX Index traders (with non shortable Bank components) is distorting the 'cash and carry arb' traders calculus & as a result, the Regulators intention to 'calm' the mkt is causing the exact opposite. To summarize, all your index hedges are not as hedged as you thought they were prior to this expiry. "

DOW futures -195. Grim.

In last weeks Moneyweek Magazine, Bill Bonner reckons not to go back in the DOW until it's below 6000. That's right 6000, if that happens there are many bloodbaths to come on the FTSE as well as the DOW.
2517

$1820 for gold.

Anyone for 11,000 going today?

on edit - I see gold coming off $1813