Interactive Investor

FTSE for Friday: an exciting end to boring week?

22nd October 2021 07:43

Alistair Strang from Trends and Targets

After hitting a post-pandemic high recently, the blue-chip index has traded a tight range. Independent analyst Alistair Strang studies the tea leaves for clues as to future direction.

This week on the FTSE 100 could be fairly described as boring, the market comprehensively failing to show direction with a trading range of around 50 points. It almost feels like the market has been in shock at achieving a new high since the pandemic plunge of March last year.

We’d hoped the “surge” to 7,244 a week ago would be significant, inspiring confidence in the marketplace. But unfortunately, the last four sessions were utterly lame and lacking in any commitment.

If we opt to fear the worst, the FTSE needs to fall below 7,156 points to justify some slight near-term concern. We can calculate the potential of this triggering reversals to an initial 7,116 points with secondary, if broken, at a painful looking 7,048 points. If triggered, the tightest stop loss level looks like a tempting 7,186 points, almost too tight to be trusted given the reversal potentials.

More likely, we suspect movements above 7,216 points should prove interesting, calculating with a fairly useless potential of 7,232 points. If bettered, our secondary is a more alluring ,7275 points and yet another high for the period since last years pandemic drop.

Have a good weekend. Here in Scotland, we’ve had the first snow of winter, along with the first frosts!

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. 

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