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

UBS and DB did well in this market, with tight money supply. They will do better with more money becoming available ....


HSBC is rising.
Barcley's joining.

Berlusconi resignation 'denied'

The main coalition ally in the Italian cabinet has denied a newspaper report that Silvio Berlusconi is to step down.

Incoming ECB head gives euro zone pre-summit boost

(Reuters) - The incoming head of the European Central Bank threw the euro zone a lifeline hours before a crucial summit on Wednesday by signaling the bank would go on buying troubled states' bonds to combat market turmoil.

Can't say I was expecting a re-test of 11700 so soon, but left a limit buy in at 11705 this morning on the off chance. Pleasantly surprised to see it triggered a little while ago for +56 :-)



Think I might sit on my hands whilst the Euro muppets try to sort themselves out.

DOW is a little volatile this evening! Thought it was going to dip through 11700, but unfortunately stopped at 11707, before scooting up 100+ points.

Leaders agree eurozone debt deal after late-night talks

European leaders have reached a "three-pronged" agreement which they say is vital to resolving the region's massive debt crisis.

After marathon talks in Brussels, the leaders said private banks holding Greek debt had accepted a loss of 50%.

Banks must also raise more capital to protect them against losses resulting from any future government defaults.

The deal also approved a mechanism to boost the eurozone's main bailout fund to 1tr euros (880bn; $1.4tn).

The framework for the new fund is to be put in place in November.

next question ...... assuming market opens at +120 as indicated, does it have more immediate upward momentum? ...... my gut feeling is not much and that there could be significant profit-taking before close of biz tomorrow

cynic - I think that's inevitable but I am hoping for quite a lot of blue initially. FTSE currently 5677/83

take that number as read, but will you be banking any profits at that juncture? ..... not sure of my own (re)actions, but hope i shall have the discipline to do so

Nor me - I'd like to think I'm going to be sensible and see this opportunity for what it is! I've had a short on the DOW @12018 as a small hedge. Eyes down I guess.

heavy overhead supply on the way

The Yanks GDP @1:30 today - should make for an interesting afternoon.

i forced myself to bank an adequate profit on RBS but put some of that into spivvy Baobab as they look to be trotting out good drilling results again and the shares are less than half what they were a few months ago

Euro is 1.4. UK should do the same to get to 1.8 levels.
Should be good for the market.

Even some of the tiddlers are having a good day - SXX and CYAN - both on news.

I'm not sure about the dollar holding up...lot of talk about the $ going up...but I think that it is heading for 1.7 against the pound or more with crude rising because of this rather than simply because of increasing demand.

The shorters can crash the market by 4% a day. When it comes to recovery, it takes many days to recover the lost money. Is it because we cannot rely on our leaders!

WHY?

Days ?....months...if not several years....

just shorted ftse 5700 a bit

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