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

btw these austerity packages are nonsense out of greece reality and undoable.

hali - glad we're not in eurozone?

cynic "never say never" but certainly at the moment there is no incentive to consider joining, in fact the way the germans are behaving suggests we wasted a great deal fighting two world wars.

old family affairs?...lol

Greeks vote this evening on their austerity decision. Will set the mood for monday morning.

CBI says UK will avoid double dip recession

Britain will avoid a double dip recession and modest growth should restart later this year, according to business lobby group the CBI.

In its latest economic forecast, the employers' organisation expects growth of 0.9% in 2012 and 2% next year.

French Prelim GDP q/q 0.2% v consensus -0.2% previous 0.3%

German Prelim GDP q/q -0.2% v consensus -0.3% previous 0.5%

Hong Kong is up over 400, Japan is up over 150. We cannot go down if China is contributing to EU found. IMO

Claimant Count Change 6.9k v consensus 3.2K previous 1.2K

short Dow @ 12,938

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out Dow +80

out dow today and that would be +180

Weekly jobless claims fall to 348,000, the lowest level in nearly 4 years. Housing starts and building permits rise in January.

Big Ben at 2!!

have shorted Dow at 12925 (missed 12940)

disregarding short term market's ability to misjudge situation and default on the horizon- this move may be hugely successful.

which move??

Crazy yanks cynic, good luck with your short, can't help thinking they are hell bent on 13k but not putting my money on it.

12925/940 is only fractionally short of 13,000, and i'ld be very surprised to see the dow surge through that level, at least not without a correction ..... also don't forget that it is a long w/e in US, so no market on monday