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

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks are set to tumble at the opening bell Tuesday (currently -200 DOW) after Greece's prime minister called an unexpected public referendum to approve Europe's bailout deal.

The Greeks are hardly likely to vote for the austere measures required, so what happens then? Do they not get the bailout funds, default on their loans, thereby inflicting not just a 50% haircut on bond holders but 100%, and/or leave the euro.
2517

I believe so yes (default and leave the Euro). The default would trigger payments of credit default swaps, banks would lose their money and some probably fail, massive chaos ensues IMO..

shrewd political move by the Greek PM, if the referendum is in favour of the austerity proposals it will calm the political unrest and the markets, if the vote is against then Greece leaves the euro and all sides will be happy except the holders of greek debt that will take the hit....... heads you win tails you win!

Just the odd 200 down then atm.

At least the greek PM has the guts to call a referendum on what is effectively membership of the EU whereas "call me dave" is too scared to do so.

covered short on Dow 11724.. btw papandreu should get shot.. f...r.

i'm glad Ftse survived 5400 level to the close..

.

Horrendous markets, opening any trade feels like roulette.

Italy a bigger threat to UK than Greece, warns FSA chairman Lord Turner


Harry Wilson, 19:00, Tuesday 1 November 2011

Italy's debt problems pose an even greater risk to the British economy than a Greek default, according to Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority.

Giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on Tuesday, Lord Turner said that while the direct exposure of British banks to Italy was not large, the country's financial crisis, if it got worse, would be more damaging to the UK than those of Greece, Ireland (Xetra: A0Q8L3 - news) and Portugal.

"Italy is the most concerning. That is the most important thing for us to focus on," he said.

The Italian government is currently looking at ways to cut the country's public sector debt of close to 2 trillion (1.8bn) as well as sales of state assets.

Speaking on Tuesday, a senior Italian banker told The Telegraph that he thought it was "highly unlikely" Italy's problems would ever get as bad as those in Greece, where the government on Monday called for a referendum to vote on a multi-billion euro bailout package.

Lord Turner's comments will add to fears about the strength of the British financial system to stand up to a new crisis.

Speaking at the same hearing, he told MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) that investors should no longer think of bank shares as "high return" investments and that the days of large payouts were over.

"An investment in banks should not be a high-risk, high-return investment. The banks have adjusted this but not enough," he said.

On Monday, Robert Jenkins, a former City banker and a member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, said that banks should stop using return on equity to measure their performance as it led them to seek high returns without accounting for risk.

Fookin' hell, DOW up 77 pts from the close at 11739, who would have thought it?

very strange times it has to be said

Nigh on impossibe Ricardo, scalped about 50 pts off the DOW in three trades and wasn't in any for more than sixty seconds!

tomorrow morning may give some clue - but doubtful :-))

Who knows, FTSE would have had a really good day today with the GDP had it not been for the sodding Eurozone :(

Andrew Roberts from RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) said Italy's debt stress is "dangerously close to a level that could cause pandemonium in financial markets".

Dc, After Greece its got to be Italy next, then Spain, then-----

markets are totally nuts!

NXT results going down well - opened up a quid.

good grief! just shows what i know