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

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

cynic - it is even more mad than usual - SL. IMS may give the insurers a fillip.

NXT all time high 2736 +179 - unbelievable.

its mad , but we have to survive this level otherwise pandemonium..

Wish I had more time to play these ups and downs......

One thing people seem to have forgotten is that if Greece decide to leave the EU and banks are forced to take a 100% haircut, then the money earmarked for Greece could be given to the banks to cover some/all their losses.