A potential boost for FTSE 100

FTSE for Friday (FTSE:UKX)

There are a few instances where we'd really love to write something like, "you're on your own, we're clueless!" In fairness, we never hesitate to use such language for our private clients as it'd be stupid to pretend something when real money is involved. And if the Governor of the Bank of England is reading, why not pay attention to this principal.

Seriously, issuing a negative statement rather than admit a completely new set of circumstances makes the future impossible to predict ranks as crass foolishness, in our book, anyway.

Though we did experience a warm glow when the GBP:EUR relationship foundered to 1.1052, as we'd predicted it on June 20th, 2017. Our actual drop target was 1.1061.

To return to the concept of admitting the presence of a vacant clue, Friday is looking quite difficult. The preceding week has been strange, with drop triggers failing to reach targets across most index whereas upward triggers tend to reach their initial target, even better it a bit.

And then lose interest in proceedings for the rest of the session. France, Germany, the UK, and USA all have made us victims in this crime. Perhaps we should remember it's August and The Holidays, a time when the market will sometimes exhibit upward creep, but rarely with any great strength.

And so, we're not terribly happy, but shall concede anything on the FTSE above 7,485 near-term is supposed to provoke 7,510 points next. Visually, it's not an impossible scenario as this would place the FTSE against the prior high in July.

But, if 7,510 is bettered, we're not exactly salivating about the secondary at 7,540. There are a couple of other indicators which may assist in providing a boost.

Firstly, the retail banks are all attempting some sort of upward movement. RBS in particular should prove interesting should the share price manage to actually close a session above 260p as it's not difficult to imagine a future scenario toward 300p.

Secondly, Brent crude has broken above a long term downtrend since 2014 and, while the price requires better than $55 to make us confident of real growth, the threat is now present.

If the FTSE intends trouble, below 7,393 should be interesting as it permits near-term weakness to 7,376 initially with secondary, if broken, at 7,340 points.

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, Shareprice, 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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