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

a bit of bear closing today has pushed the market up ...... at one point it was +34 but has clearly met renewed selling (into the rally) and cannot hold as now only +7

Unfortunately have'nt got the technical know how, how to copy and paste US Dollar Index Chart, this is the chart to keep an eye on imho. Think it was jonuk who obliged last time?

Gold seems to have settled around the $1700/oz level, which seems strange given the macro uncertainty.

Cheers skinny just scalped + 15.3. Long from 5155.5 out 5170.8 using 10min chart on UKX and DI. It does work but have to go out so that will do for now :O)

Chris - this one is a lot sexier.

aye that's obviously the one I wanted to post. If you go into 10 min chart it is a lot clearer. I'm actually using Charts from Caps (obviously) 10 mins 50 and 20 dma and MacD and RSI works a treat.

One step closer to a Federal Europe - EuroBonds now seriously on the cards.

Harry if the market wont buy Bunds why should they want to buy Eurobonds? Our cynical view is yesterdays lack of Bund buying was the market firing a shot across the germans bows if they persist in introducing a "tobin" tax.

'Cos the ECB is about the only credible player left. Collectively a EuroBond would have the strength that individual sovereign debt does not. Many of the current Bond issues are being partially written off or are at such a high interest rate that they are virtually unrepayable.

good job US is shut today and tomorrow

cynic - I believe its open tomorrow (black Friday).

Yep, Federer v Fish now more interesting than my stocks screen!

you could well be right skinny, but for sure biz will be very slack

Harry why is the ECB more credible than the German government?

Because it is a collective responsibilty rather than an individual one. Germany alone can't resolve Euro issues. Euro members collectively may be able to. ECB is not german owned, yet.
EDIT - Not brilliantly explained but you hopefully get my drift. ECB has collective power. Individual countries don't have that strength.

Harry - Roger has just changed up a gear - amazing player.

Harry get real the germans run the ECB.

I know what you mean, but actually they don't:
"The Governing Council is the main decision-making body of the ECB. It consists of
a)the six members of the Executive Board (2 of which are german), plus
b)the governors of the national central banks of the 17 euro area countries."

i fully expected ftse to be down 50/60 points at the open, which it patently was not ...... however, after a feeble rally to +34, it is now down 40