FTSE for Friday: breaking this level could trigger big move
Despite wanting more from the Bank of England yesterday, independent analyst Alistair Strang sees good reason to be optimistic about near-term movements for the FTSE 100 index.
9th May 2025 07:41
by Alistair Strang from Trends and Targets

Thursday was something of a disappointment, the market expected to show some growth following a ‘surprise’ interest rate cut. Unfortunately, the reality seems to be a case that we experienced one of these ‘buy on the rumour, sell on the news’ sessions which are always a bit irritating.
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We were privately hoping for an interest rate cut in excess of that given, due to our “bottom” target for interest rates being 3.75% and a suspicion that the Bank of England may accelerate travel to our target level.
The stock market has behaved recently in a fashion reminiscent of someone having pressed the pause button, quite a few fits and starts stifled before anything interesting comes to fruition.
As for the FTSE 100, it is actually in an interesting position from a near-term perspective as above 8,576 points looks capable of triggering movement to an initial 8,632 points. If bettered, our secondary calculates at 8,694 points, quite a big deal as it opens the door for strong market movement in the medium term, almost to the 8,900 point level.
We harbour a suspicion “they” are trying to dampen down such a potential as it should all happen quite fast if we rely on our usual logic.
If things intend to go wrong, below 8,500 now looks dangerous as it opens the door toward an initial 8,426 points with our secondary, if broken, calculating down at 8,300 points and a reasonable chance of a rebound.

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.
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