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

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!

Jon - I was just thinking along similar lines - is the "over subscription" a combination of the rate on offer and perception that there may be light at the end of the tunnel - or maybe I'm clutching at straws or some similar metaphor !

Must admit I'm not au fait with the workings of bond auctions. My guess would be that over subscription does suggest there was a strong demand for the bonds at that rate (perhaps for those reasons). In contrast to the German auction earlier in the week where they failed to find buyers at 2-ish percent.

So will they or won't they :-)

is that custer's mob?

"those crazy yanks" - poetic license!

If DOW can clear 11140 and then 11160 might be in for a blue day. maybe, perhaps, possibly..............................anyone want to bet on it??

I have :-)

Long or short skinners?

(I'm guessing long)

what's your hunch peter?
mine is also blue and took a small position at 11195

Yes - small DOW @11,180.

Long from 11197

11195.7 to be precise.

So having backed our respective hunches, who's gonna cash first?

Loon Tunes are back in town don't you just love those crazy yanks :O)

If it helps there's a gap to be filled at 11800 lol

Stopped half @11,330 +150.


"

have moved my stop so am now guaranteed a profit