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

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

Harry the composition of the ECB's board is immaterial ..... which country calls the shots and pays the bills?

Not so long ago I was quite Bullish overall, I could see Cable continuing its upward trend and the DOW / FTSE doing likewise.

What a difference a few weeks makes :(

I've noticed that the EUR/USD cross has been in a long term downward channel since July 2008 and is now well into the next downward leg (the third). It's quite an easy channel to spot and also symmetrical in time and price. If the price movement follows previous performance, the pair could hit 1.15 very early next year (2000 pips in three months?).

Naturally, equities will spiral downwards in the same manner and I think we'd be quite lucky to see a low on the DOW of just 10,600 and I've only picked that number as the last major correction. I wonder if the 2008 sub prime low of 7000 ish could be re-visited?

As always just ruminating about the general state of affairs, but for sure it would appear that the enormous levels of debt worldwide have not yet played out in respect of banks, financial institutions, even countries going to the wall.

I think the last time we had 9 consecutive down days (before now) was January 2003 - I'm not sure when/if we had 10 - maybe today!

So, the only way is up now then?

I wouldn't be surprised to see "those crazy yanks" rally later - probably after we close!

there has to a rally eventually, but be prepared to sell into it before everyone else does

.

Obviously affected by many factors, weighting etc - but still quite a contrast.

On edit :- FTSE (blue) v DOW (black).

black is what? dow?

cynic - yes its annoying that MAM chart software doesn't annotate as such - now updated.

On edit - actually it does - if you look carefully :-)

Dollar Index looking strong, scalped a few short on UKX, but as you say skinny those crazy yanks back in action today so who knows :O)

Italian bond sale this AM. 7.814%.

Edit BBC news.

Here is the link - Italy forced to pay record interest rates at auction

Italy has been forced to pay record interest rates in a 10bn euro ($13bn; 9bn) auction of treasury bills.

The rate of interest for the new debts due to be repaid in six months was 6.504%, compared with 3.535% in the last comparable sale on 26 October.

The rate for two-year borrowing was 7.814%, up from 4.628% last time.

The Bank of Italy stressed that demand for the bonds had been high, with demand for the debts outstripping supply by 50%.

Better rate than you'd get at the bank - if you trust they won't default in the next couple of years!