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

FTSE will likely open down 200

how much more downside remains is hard to judge, though as i mentioned earlier, there'll be significant margin calls, forced selling and stops hit

i'ld guess, but unlikely that i'll marry money with mouth, that a further 50/75 points might be on the cards if you can act fast enough
however, given that in practice rather than sentiment very little will actually have changed since friday afternoon, i'ld not be at all surprised to see that loss cut to no more than say 125 points by the close
that'll still be very ugly and will perhaps trigger some computer selling on chart levels

========

i've never followed DAX so have nothing less intelligent than usual to comment
however, with germany in a hole for €57bn, the outlook must surely be far worse than for FTSE

just announced .....

Greece imposes capital controls
Greece has moved to close its banks and impose capital controls to prevent financial chaos following the breakdown of bailout talks with its international creditors.
The dramatic move on Sunday night came after the European Central Bank announced it would freeze the amount of emergency loans it supplied to keep the Greek banking system afloat.

cheers cynic - yep just keeps getting better and better - look at the latest statement from that alexis T stupid as - i want to buy him lots and lots of his favourite drinks and cigars - with his clown leadership, the history of greece as described by their own philosophers and even bigger clowns @imf @ecb @ eurocommunity this always had disaster work in progress written all over it - headless chickens springs to mind who were just trying to keep kicking the can down the road permanently lol:

'It’s official, capital controls are being imposed in Greece, as the financial crisis takes an even more alarming turn tonight.

Speaking on live TV, Alexis Tsipras is saying that the Greek central bank has been forced to recommend a bank holiday and the introduction of capital controls.

He blames the ECB, and other institutions, for trying to obstruct the democratic referendum he has called for next Sunday. This is a “insult” that shames European democracy, he says.'

then add in the other market factors and scenarios even without the immigration crisis and russia et al and here we are...................

i wonder if tsipras is secretly shorting the markets lol - this is so amazing!

'That in turn could eventually result in Greece leaving the euro.' then the contagion......... YUM

go the TALK thread if you want some entertainment on the rottenness within greece, courtesy of friend hays

fred - make of it what you will but eur/usd has just firmed from sell to strong sell - obviously things are very fluid right now...............

cheers cynic ref talk thread - will take a look later

FANTASTIC!!! :-D

Financial markets heading for heavy falls on Monday.

Oh Goodness Me.

Global stock markets are just getting into gear for the new week, and it’s already clear that shares are going to fall sharply on Monday morning.

The future’s market is predicting that the main US stock markets could fall by close to 2%.

BREAKING: S&P 500 E-MINI FUTURES SLIP 1.7% AT THE OPEN

CNBC Now
✔
@CNBCnow

ALERT: Dow futures lower by 320+ points on Greece worries; S&P futures lower by more than 40, Nasdaq fut. off 70+ »

gla

FTSE short closed on that last spike down +225 :-)

well done skinny - ditto - also closed out dax this morning over 550 :-))))
fantastic day
gl

Well done on the DAX - quite some fall - currently down 4.27%.

cheers

Well done to all those who called this carnage correctly. I was all square over weekend as I don't like holding over weekends. Going to sit this morning out and see what happens when Wall Street opens.

my inclination would be to go short again around present levels, but as i'm flitting here there and everywhere - aka being on hol - i shall resist the temptation

so what next?
clearly nothing is any clearer than it was and it is unlikely that any silver bullet will magically appear before this referendum result is known

logically, the greeks probably OUGHT to vote to accept the EU proposals, but then i am not in the position of already suffering the current consequences

however, even i think the EU proposals stink and i cannot see that they will really ameliorate greece's plight in the foreseeable future

of course, the fact of the matter is that greece is worse than broke, so the only real way to help would be for IMF to write-off most if not all of the debt
will that happen?
who knows?

The Greeks have already been to see the Russians and I wonder if the Eurozone will ultimately allow the Greeks to exit, with the possibility of a foreign power gaining a political and financial foot into the backdoor of Europe, if they haven't already done so. Greece is going to need financial assistance from somewhere as the Drachma will be virtually worthless if reintroduced. My gut feeling is that Europe will offer yet another solution which the Greeks will have to accept......yet again.

the russkies want a gas pipeline through turkey and greece .... perhaps this by-passes ukraine but i'm nor sure not of the significance

the russkies would also (for sure) like a naval base in the med

it follows that the rest of the "west" would like to be shot of tsipras and his far-left gov't (surprised fred isn't offering his expertise and funding), so all sorts of shenanigans are likely to come into play ....... none of which will give the markets much comfort

I wish I could run my credit card the way the Greeks are running their finances!
I'm sure if I said to Mastercard, can I borrow more money as I can use that to pay the original debt, they would cut off my credit. Sadly I don't have a strategic holiday pad in the Med to horse trade with!

dow heading south once more, dragging cash ftse with it

dow currently 17,712 so next stop is 17,686 from where one may see a bounce once more