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

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

Nope, news from the summit seems to be along the lines of Greece will be given time to hold their refernedum during the first week of December. Typical of Merkel and Sarkozy to effectively do nothing.

DOW / FTSE already sliding.

What now for the FTSE? a bumpy ride.

Down 100+ pts tomorrow, already down 33 on IG

Papandreou's own senior ministers look to be rebelling against his decision to hold a referendum.

"Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou appears to heading for defeat in a vote of confidence after mounting opposition within his own party to a surprise referendum call on the EU bailout plan....

...Early on Thursday, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos spoke out publicly against the idea of a referendum. He was followed by the deputy finance minister, the health minister and the development minister, says the BBC's Mark Lowen, in Athens.

In a statement early on Thursday, Mr Venizelos said Greece's membership of the euro could not be put in doubt.

"If we want to protect the country we must, under conditions of national unity and political seriousness and consensus, implement without any delay the decision of 26 October. Now, as soon as possible," Mr Venizelos said."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15568915

Halifax, I read or heard somewhere that Greece has a deficit (or whatever you call it ) of a trillion euros and Italy 2 trillion....the figures are just astronomical....perhaps the sums are incorrect....

Greek crisis: Papandreou 'to offer to resign'

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is expected to offer his resignation within the next half-hour, sources in Athens have told the BBC.

Mr Papandreou will meet Greek President Karolos Papoulios immediately after an emergency cabinet meeting has finished.

He is expected to offer a coalition government, with former Greek central banker Lucas Papademos at the helm.

Mr Papandreou himself would stand down, the BBC understands.

I take it he has gone!!!!!!!!!

Not yet, Skinners, calm down. That was Super Mario who did that.

Required Field - no that can't be right, can't see where those figures have come from. A deficit is when spending exceeds revenue (it's the difference between the two figures basically). The difference has to be borrowed (and adds to the national debt). According to www.tradingeconomics.com and the BBC/Eurostat

Italy has a GDP of 2051 billion USD ($2.05 trillion).
Their government debt is 119% of GDP (call it $2.44 trillion).
Their budget deficit, according to the latest figures I could find (2010) is 4.6% of GDP.

Greece has a GDP of 304 billion USD ($0.3 trillion).
Their government debt is 142.8% of GDP ($434 billion or $0.43 trillion).
Their budget deficit (2010) is 10.5% of GDP.

Feel free to convert into Euro's or whatever :)

Hi Hils - someone is being pre-emptive with the banks.

Eurozone rates cut to 1.25% from 1.5%

Clear as mud.

1319: Greek state TV (quoted by AFP) says Mr Papandreou insisted he was not resigning when he spoke at today's emergency cabinet meeting. Reuters quoted a source in his office as saying: "There is no resignation by the prime minister... There is no resignation by the cabinet."

Even bigger bombshell news than the Greek crisis..............Hiltops posts on MAM!

Plateman - I assumed she was lecturing at the course today!

Skinny :>)

Hils - just 'got it' I'd forgotten than Claude Van Damme had gone.