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

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.

rf your "back of the envelope" numbers are incorrect like those of most journos.

Perhaps....Jonuk76 seems to know a lot about it.....whatever the case Greece is in a real mess....

Don't really know a lot about it, but a look at the figures shows their debt is not in the trillions. As a percent of GDP it's certainly high though. With a deficit running at 10.5% of GDP, and the normal sources of credit no longer available (26% 10 year bond yields and rising..), they are just going to need bailing out over and over again.

The main problem is that their economy is uncompetitive, and they have been living well beyond their means. About 40% of workers in Greece are employed by the government, so the harsh austerity they are being forced to impose is having a huge effect, and will continue to cause their economy to shrink. There is no quick fix to the problem, I think.

I do think the situation is different between Italy and Greece. Italy at least has a more varied economy, less reliant on government employment, and they probably stand a better chance of growing their way out of it than Greece. They are implementing austerity measures to reduce the deficit, and asset sales could reduce the overall debt level. The Italian problem is that the numbers involved are much bigger than Greece and they are 'too big to save' if it goes pear shaped...

dc, Is this week going to be Italy week. I think the attention will turn from Greece to
Italy.Italy is going to rapidly rise on investor radar screens and may be the bigger story."






Markets abandoning hopes for lasting euro zone solution



Steven C. Johnson, 19:48, Sunday 6 November 2011

NEW YORK (Frankfurt: A0DKRK - news) (Reuters) - After another week of confusion and turmoil in Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) , investors are ditching whatever hopes they once had for a conclusive solution to the debt crisis.

That may foreshadow a gloomy holiday season in markets, especially if wary investors opt to reduce risk in their portfolios and take refuge in U.S. Treasuries and the dollar.

Just weeks after it seemed leaders had drafted a master plan to solve the crisis, doubts rose about whether Greece would back a 130 billion-euro bailout.

And as politicians in Athens struggled to form a consensus government, Italian bond yields spiked to a euro-era high of 6.4 percent, raising fears that the country may soon need to follow Greece and others in seeking an emergency bailout.

"At the end of the day, it does seem like a grand plan is elusive at best," said David Ader, head of government bond strategy at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.

"We've seen one European bank and one U.S. brokerage fail. We know there are strains for French banks. We're wondering how long it will be before Greek default worries spread to Italy and Spain," he said. "In a situation like that, money managers are going to decide to simply take their risk down."

Investors are betting the market will see evidence of that as soon as this week, as flight-to-safety flows help boost U.S. Treasury debt, lift the dollar against the euro and weigh on stock markets around the world.

The biggest fear is that a disorderly default in Greece or elsewhere would ripple across the global financial market the same way the Lehman Brothers collapse did in 2008. That, investors fear, would probably be enough to plunge the global economy into recession.

"This is going to be pretty negative news for risk markets," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "We are going to see a continued flight-to-quality tomorrow."

Benchmark U.S. 10-year note yields dropped more than 29 basis points in the past week and a half as worries about Europe overshadowed signs of economic improvement in America.

FADING RISK RALLIES

Ashraf Laidi, CEO of Intermarket Strategy in London, said he expected the euro to struggle again this week after losing nearly 3 percent against the dollar last week. By year end, he said it could fall below $1.30. It was around $1.38 Friday.

"This past week really raised some tricky questions," he said. "For the first time I can remember, the possibility that Greece really could leave the euro zone was being talked about in cafes and bars as well as on trading desks."

If Greece can cobble together a new unity government that backs the EU rescue plan, that might, "at least for a while, be a market-stabilizing factor," said Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) currency strategist Greg Anderson.

Prime Minister George Papandreou suggested Sunday he was ready to pass the baton.

But that is not likely to cheer investors much, meaning any rally in stocks or the euro will be shallow and brief.

"These 24-hour risk-on rallies, I don't know how much longer people are going to be willing to do that," said Ader. "Sell-offs are getting deeper because the rallies are only short-covering moves. People are not getting long and putting on bets that everything is suddenly OK."

FROM GREECE TO ITALY

Alan Ruskin, head of G10 currency strategy at Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) in New York, said the focus is likely to shift from Greece to Italy fairly quickly in the weeks ahead, and that should mean more market volatility and unwillingness to take on risk.

Italy's debt-to-output ratio stands at 120 percent, second only to Greece in the 17-country euro zone, and its borrowing costs are rising.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently refused a loan offer by the International Monetary Fund and his government may be on the verge of collapse.

"Berlusconi says Italians are not feeling the crisis but that's because the European Central Bank has been providing high levels of liquidity at low interest rates and buying Italian bonds," Ruskin said. "That begs the question, should the ECB stop that to show them this is really a crisis?"

"I have to believe a lot of investors like me are thinking this could be the start of Italy week," said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. "Italy is going to rapidly rise on investor radar screens and may be the bigger story."