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

and this morning's euphoria quickly evaporating ...... and good point DD ..... there is also a view that lancing the greek boil now is no bad thing

It's the size of the debt that is incredible....a small country like Greece owing a trillion euros or so.....hard to believe....

not if no one pays tax it isn't!

ADP Employment Change slightly better than expected @110k v consensus @101k.

Greek Yields Rise Over 90 Percent on Default Concern; French Bonds Decline

Greek two-year note yields rose to more than 90 percent for the first time as Europes leaders prepared to tell the nation there is no alternative to the budget cuts agreed on under its international rescue plan.

Hot(ish) off the press - Pensions: David Cameron says improved offer 'very fair'

rf where do you get a trillion euros from, at the end of 2010 greek public debt amounted to 329billion euros and is currently around 355billion?

Halifax - if you find out - please let me know :-)

Rates unchanged 0.25 - shocker !!

strange times, though we should be thankful for a strong finish today - but can it hold until and over the w/e? .... now there's an interesting Q

I must be honest - I haven't traded this period of volatility/uncertainly anywhere near as well as I thought I would.

There certainly doesn't seem to be much respite from sharp reversals, up or down.
Cable starting to look a bit sick over the last few days which has been one of my overall market indicators (rightly or wrongly). Ho Hum

lets not exaggerate, its just buying and selling.. lol

Louise Armitstead, 21:36, Wednesday 2 November 2011

European leaders have threatened to withhold 8bn (6.9bn) of international aid from Greece until Athens agrees to adopt the terms of the Brussels debt crisis deal without a referendum.

DC - do you think will they carry out the threat?

I hope they do, bin them out of the Euro, save all the bail out money and give it to Italy - simples :-)

Agree I hope they do. Italy, spain, portugal would love some. Very worrying .

Potentially some market moving news tonight when the Euro chumps come out from behind closed doors?

Sorry to post bad news, not looking good.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 21:10, Wednesday 2 November 2011

Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) is sliding into a full-blown industrial recession with contraction spreading to Germany and a drastic decline under way in Italy, greatly complicating efforts to contain the regions debt crisis.

Is there any good news on the horizon?

The Greeks are expecting to receive 8bn from the IMF, the sixth tranche of a 110bn lifeline agreed last year. But that's now been put on hold.

But even this, Papandreou knows, is probably an empty threat, no matter how long it takes for him to organise the referendum and deliver a "yes" vote - assuming he survives Friday's no-confidence vote. The Greeks, however ungrateful and troublesome they appear to their partners in the eurozone, can probably afford to call the IMF's bluff.

The eurozone crisis all boils down to a simple truth familiar to the humblest bank manager running the smallest rural branch you can imagine.

If a customer owes you a 1,000, that's his problem. If he owes you 100,000,000, that's your problem.

If the IMF withholds the money for too long then Greece will default and do so in a disorderly manner. Such an event would cause a systemic crisis making Lehman's look like small change lost down the back of the sofa.

Banks holding Greek debt would be forced to write down, if not write off, the value of their holdings. What would happen then is anyone's guess, but it wouldn't be good. It's likely the banks in question would simultaneously seek compensation for their losses from the other institutions that had sold them insurance (credit default swaps) against this very event happening.

Not only would that bill run into hundreds of billions of euros but the markets would have no way of knowing which insurers, investment banks or any other market participants had sold the insurance and therefore the liabilities. It's likely the share prices of financial institutions across the world would collapse, liquidity and funding would dry up, sucking the system back toward the vortex it sailed so close to in 2008.

So although Greece has no money it has liabilities aplenty, making it too big to fail. In the crazy world of the eurozone, it's got the strongest negotiating position of the lot.

damian.reece@telegraph.co.uk