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

The Dow futures testing Newton's second law of motion atm!

Contrarian long @12680 :-)

As posted above - Greece calls new elections after coalition talks fail

(Reuters) - Greece will hold new elections after political leaders failed to find agreement on a coalition government on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Greek president said.

A caretaker government to lead the country to fresh polls will be appointed on Wednesday, the presidency spokesman said after party leaders held a final round of talks.

"We're heading to elections," the spokesman told reporters.

Stopped +30 @12,710.

Who do you think is going to win next time?

People do not like exit from Euro or Eurozone as many of them work in Germany and study in other European countries.

I think they will tend to think properly this time and play a more secure game.

From the link above :-

"Polls show the leftist SYRIZA party, which rejects the bailout and placed second in last week's vote, is now on course to win, a result that would give it an automatic bonus of 50 seats in the 300-seat parliament."

The people are not stupid. They want to keep Euro, permission to work in the EU, and continue receiving support in form of grants for education and universities from the EU.

from the same link:
European leaders say that they will cut off funding for Greece if it rejects the bailout agreed in March, which would mean bankruptcy and all but certain exit from the European single currency.

Currently the polls are pointing to the Syriza party winning next time. From the BBC "Polls suggest the leftist Syriza bloc, which came second in the 6 May vote and rejects all further cutbacks, could become the largest party after a new election.

Syriza wants to renegotiate the bailout package but also wants to keep Greece in the Euro."

Anything can happen..

Greek government blinks first as foreign law bondholders repaid in full
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Greek government has made a last minute decision to pay back in full some foreign law bondholders who refused to participate in the country's debt restructuring in March. Greece is to pay €430 million ($550 million) to holders of a specific series of foreign law bonds which is due for repayment today.

The move may be seen as setting a precedent for other foreign law bonds as they become due, and is also likely to infuriate the vast majority of investors who did participate in the debt restructuring.

UK Ferrari sales somehow soar 31%

Thats skinny after his DOW trade !

The leg room is a bit restricted! :-)

I do have a primary target for the Dow;

it may be lower than that - 12175

Not sure if you got my message Cynners, i did send you a PM the other day!
Anyway, yes, indeed, things are looking quite dire out there...

Despite posting this analysis back on the 27th April, i have barely managed to make any money from the prediction. In fact the only money i made was on a pullback long!

In particular i'm well annoyed with myself having been short the Dow yesterday at 12708 and exited at -4, as i couldn't label the late morning's move...

Davai - 27 Apr 2012 19:52 - 8093 of 8191 edit this post

This is a possibility and certainly gives into next week for more gains, but i still keep my downside bias once a couple of levels are reached. Just a plan for now, but here's the charts; (i hope they are self explanatory!)

The Dow;

sorry MrD but nothing from you ..... send through the MAM system as AOL addy has changed

Hmmmm, i did! Ok will try again!

Well done the Italians! :-)

EUR Italian Trade Balance 2.06B v consensus -1.35B previous -1.14B

Merv the swerve at 10:30.