Charts of the week: the FTSE 100 and other strong trends
As markets enjoy their best day in ages, Max Macmillan highlights those that have weathered the storm well and demonstrate solid structural uptrends.
8th April 2026 15:09
by Max Macmillan from Aberdeen
Amid the tumult of geopolitical shocks, it is difficult, even treacherous, to put much weight on chart formations.
But zooming out, we can observe that throughout the volatility of March, some equity regions preserved the integrity of their strong primary trends.
In technical analysis, it can pay to seek alignment across time frames (good short-term and long-term dynamics), hunting for good risk/reward set-ups within a powerful jet stream.
The longer time frame (weekly candles, multi-year window) can be used to identify structural trends.
Today, we'll simply highlight a few markets whose jet streams remain intact, in the sense that they have continued to trend above their upward sloping 200-day moving averages (MAs): the UK, Japan, emerging markets and global semiconductors.
For longer-term positions, emergent trends after multi-year pullbacks are preferable, but when trading tactically, the support of a strong primary trend can help increase the hit ratio.
FTSE 100 has good bounce off the 200-day moving average
Source: Bloomberg. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Japan holding on to most of its performance gained since later summer 2025
Source: Bloomberg. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Emerging market equities reacting well to the rising 200-day MA
Source: Bloomberg. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Global semiconductors continuing to exhibit strong relative performance to broader indices
Source: Bloomberg. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Max Macmillan is head of Aberdeen’s macro investments team, managing unconstrained multi-asset funds.
The team conducts macro and technical analysis across multiple time frames, helping them manage portfolios dynamically and generate differentiated return streams. Technical analysis is used most actively for their shorter-term tactical risk taking.
The author would like to stress that technical analysis should not be understood as determining the future path of financial markets.
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