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

Eire looks to be on the road to recovery, so i don't think there is any real concern there .... portugal is small enough and does not look to be in quite the same straits as spain with its horrendous youth unemployment and massive and uncovered corruption

With big trading losses I often wonder where the money goes. Losses often reported, but the gain never seems to surface elsewhere:
"We (broker FBR) are lowering our rating on JPMorgan to Market Perform from Outperform and our price target to $37 from $50. Our downgrade comes on the heels of the company's disclosure that it has a large, illiquid hedge position on which it has already realized a $2 billion loss. "

Not a very clever hedge position - I would have thought that if the hedge was doing badly, then the position being hedged should be compensating?

I think it was a very complicated trade on "downside hedges on high grade credit". Way beyond my understanding of financial trading. But the point I was trying to make is that some company who covered the hedge is presumably $2bn in the black!

This is my preferred hedge :-)

I'm more of a bush person myself. Less to trim! ;o)

*edit 13/05/12* The drop on Friday evening, has changed my view and now need more PA before a verdict. We are in a flat corrective within the downtrend. I actually think we may go higher first to finish this move before plunging down later in the week...

Harry - "I'm more of a bush person myself"

Gees, there's no answer to that :O)

au naturel rodney ...... mange tout, mange tout!

Another morbid day by the look of it !.....

.

rf, can't say it's unexpected though and I think it will get worse before it gets better.
2517

At this rate I might consider summer hibernation....Merkel's problems might have exasperated the drop ....

Yes, that and the other recent elections around euroland bring with it added uncertainty.
2517

And the sun has gone in again :-(

Italy Sells 5.25 Billion Euros of Bonds as Demand Rises

Italy sold 5.25 billion euros of debt, including a bond with a maturity longer than 10 years for the first time in seven months, as concern eased about Italy’s ability to finance the region’s second-biggest debt.

Blood bath delayed ?

EUR French Prelim GDP q/q 0.0% v consensus 0.0% previous 0.2%

EUR French CPI m/m 0.1% v consensus 0.3% previous 0.8%

EUR German Prelim GDP q/q 0.5% v consensus 0.1% previous -0.2%

EUR French Prelim Non-Farm Payrolls q/q 0.1% consensus -0.2% previous -0.1%

DOW
having teased below the 12740 support, it is now good to see cash indication back above that
watch this level, and if you feel so inclined, dabble long but not too aggressively

cynic, hmmmm have to say i'm expecting a big drop literally from here.

JPM guys probably cashed in more than the $2bln lost over the last three days. Hummm
They most likely start going long..

JPMorgan’s Trades Probed in U.S. After Loss
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-14/u-dot-s-dot-national-bank-regulator-examining-jpmorgan-s-risky-trading?