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

Harry Dexia is in trouble because it is under capitalised.

Greece is offering holidays 2 for 1

BBC:
"Dexia's exposure to Greek government debt totals 3.4bn euros ($4.5bn; 2.9bn). Its total exposure to Greece - including to private-sector Greek borrowers - is 4.8bn euros.
It has already written off 21% of its Greek debts, but market prices now suggest the eventual loss to lenders could be in excess of 50% of the amount owed by Greece."

What a day, i can say best this year. I have closed most shorts as there may be a small bounce Wednesday.

Have just seen Charles Dumas of Lombards say that he would make a reasonably secure bet that Greece will have it's own currency within 18 months. i wonder what the odss are on that. Shorter than evens now that for sure.

Greek default is being built in but i bet there will still be a massive drop in world indices on the day it is declared.

It will not happen !....the cost to the european bank would be massive : for example all greek euro coins would have to recalled from across the globe, the total bill in switching back to the drachma would run into more than helping the greeks through these difficult times.

US is 'innocent bystander' in eurozone debt crisis, claims Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
"} Richard Blackden, 19:18, Tuesday 4 October 2011

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said that US authorities are "innocent bystanders" as European leaders grapple with a debt crisis that is now damaging confidence in the world's biggest economy


What a laugh Bernanke is, with the troubles they have caused the markets.

Is Dexia a one-off or warning shot for Europe's banks?

Steve Slater, 18:57, Tuesday 4 October 2011

LONDON (Reuters) - State help for ailing Belgian-French bank Dexia (Paris: BE0003796134 - news) sparked concern it will be the first of many banks needing taxpayer support if euro zone politicians fail to get to grips with a deepening debt crisis

no reprieve via wall street tonight ..... dow heading south sharply again

DOW 204 points down

Gold lost 2% today as investors cashed into cover other debts.

A good rise now

all relative and only "sort of" as dow seems to be consistently stalling at re-crossing 10600

extraordinary .... now watch everything catapult the other way, even if only temporarily

Thank you Mr magpie for +300 from Mr Dow.

Explain the massive falls then.

Moody's downgraded Italy's ratings to A2 from Aa2

Bernard - I should point out I gained +100 - I was alluding to the potential respite that the rise may bring but it appears Moodys have other ideas. !

As to explaining it - I've no idea, but the DOW (those crazy yanks) often has massive moves going into the close.

On edit :- the DOW is 10,733 to buy as I type.

Long this morning boys, but beware Italy downgraded, and Spain will follow this week so be alert.