FTSE 100: Watch these numbers very closely

Upward movement gave investors some hope yesterday. Our chartist sees how genuine these trends are.

We expressed curiosity over Tuesday's mystery movement on the FTSE 100, when 80 points was tacked onto the days trading once the market closed for the day.

This followed through and Wednesday morning presented a "gap up" on the market.

However, despite achieving a successful 156-point rise to our initial target level of 5,616, our secondary at 5,799 proved elusive, the day reaching 5,741 before fading.

This was pretty firmly in line with our warning to 'expect a rise to fade before the secondary', and confirms the risk of the overall market remaining in a downtrend.

For today, Thursday, we're supposed to believe further rises are ahead, none of which we shall risk treating as real unless the market makes it above 5,713 points.

Such a scenario currently points at the potential of growth to an initial 5,800 points with secondary, if bettered, at a downtrend testing 5,900 points.

Quite why the index calculates with 100 point movements utterly defeats us.

Unfortunately, it feels more likely some reversal is coming, if only due to the index fading before our 5,799 calculation.

This results in a game, where the index needs below 5,400 to justify a raised eyebrow, along with reversal to 5,251 points.

Below this and we're looking at 5,053 points. Visually, this will undo the benefit of the last two sessions.

It's perhaps worth remembering the US Weekly jobs figures are published on Thursday.

With some many businesses closed for the duration, a spike is jobless is expected, one which will doubtless be used to goose the markets.

Source: Trends and Targets      Past performance is not a guide to future performance

Alistair Strang has led high-profile and "top secret" software projects since the late 1970s and won the original John Logie Baird Award for inventors and innovators. After the financial crash, he wanted to know "how it worked" with a view to mimicking existing trading formulas and predicting what was coming next. His results speak for themselves as he continually refines the methodology.

Alistair Strang is a freelance contributor and not a direct employee of Interactive Investor. All correspondence is with Alistair Strang, who for these purposes is deemed a third-party supplier. Buying, selling and investing in shares is not without risk. Market and company movement will affect your performance and you may get back less than you invest. Neither Alistair Strang, or interactive investor will be responsible for any losses that may be incurred as a result of following a trading idea.